Small businesses hired 50,000 more employees in July and significantly increased their hours and compensation, according to figures from Intuit’s Online Payroll clients.
Intuit’s Small Business Employment Index found that small business employment increased by 0.2 percent in July and hours worked by 0.7 percent. Compensation also rose by 0.6 percent.
Intuit has also revised upward the growth rate for June to 0.3 percent from the previously reported rate of 0.2 percent, or about 50,000 jobs added for the month.
“July’s small business data cheers me up,” said Susan Woodward, the economist who worked with Intuit to create the Index. “In addition to a steady hiring trend, there is now a solid increase in hours worked and compensation. This means that small business owners are busy, giving their existing employees more work and paying them slightly more.”
Hourly employees at small businesses worked an average of 110.2 hours in July, making for a 25.4-hour workweek. That was a 0.7 percent increase from the revised June figure of 109.5 hours.
Average monthly pay for all small business employees was $2,682 per month in July, a 0.6 percent increase compared to the June revised estimate of $2,666 per month. The equivalent annual wages would be about $32,200 per year, which is part-time work for many small business employees. Approximately 65 percent of small business employees are hourly, and 30.3 percent of them worked more than 140 hours for the month in July, up from 30.1 percent in June.
