SurePayroll found hiring at small businesses has dropped 2.7 percent year to date, while optimism among small business owners has fallen to a record low of 33 percent in September.

The unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, despite the addition of 103,000 jobs.

The private sector added 91,000 jobs in September, according to the latest national employment report from payroll giant ADP.

Small businesses created 55,000 new jobs in September, while employees worked more hours and made more money, according to figures from Intuit Inc.’s Online Payroll clients.

Accounting Today has released its annual list of the Best Accounting Firms to Work For, which identifies and honors the best places of employment in the accounting industry.

While Southeast accounting firm Elliott Davis scored first in four categories of university and employer ranking Web site Vault.com’s Accounting Quality of Life Rankings for 2012, accounting firms shared the wealth in the other 11 categories.

The top factor in a failed hire, aside from performance issues, is a poor skills match, according to 36 percent of chief financial officers interviewed for a Robert Half Finance & Accounting survey.

Buoyed by revenue from the acquisitions of SurePayroll and ePlan Services, payroll and benefits outsourcing concern Paychex posted a 13 percent rise in first-quarter profits, to $149 million for the period ended August 31.

Over the next five years, revenue for the human resources and payroll software industry is expected to increase to $4.0 billion, according to a new study.

Payroll and employer-related services provider CompuPay has partnered with data products concern Pitney Bowes to integrate Pitney Bowes’ proprietary payroll cards into CompuPay’s payroll offerings for the company.

The Internal Revenue Service introduced a new voluntary compliance program Wednesday to convince employers to resolve their past issues with classifying employees as independent contractors.

Accounting and payroll software and service provider CheckMark Inc. has begun offering small business-focused payroll services for free until 2012 for all new payroll clients who sign a 12-month service agreement and have fewer than 50 employees. They must be located in Colorado, California or Texas.

President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday evening to present a jobs bill containing an expansion of the payroll tax cut, tax breaks for new hires and salary raises, and other tax reform measures.

Payroll service provider SurePayroll has released an Android version of its payroll software for smart phones and other devices that run Google’s Android software.

The outlook on the U.S. economy declined further among CFOs, controllers and CPAs in executive and senior management accounting roles in the third quarter, according to a survey by the American Institute of CPAs.

The Internal Revenue Service issued advice on Friday to employers who outsource their payroll duties to third-party service providers.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in August, with a net gain of zero jobs and the unemployment rate stuck at 9.1 percent.

Employers in the private sector added 91,000 jobs from July to August, according to payroll giant ADP.

Small businesses created 35,000 new jobs in August, but employees worked fewer hours and received less money, according to figures from Intuit Inc.’s Online Payroll clients.

Office morale is getting better for chief financial officers, according to a survey by Accountemps, a temporary staffing company for finance professionals, in which 42 percent of interviewed CFOs reported employee morale improvement in the last 12 months.