Small Business Hiring Dipped In 2017

Paychex, the human resources firm, found that hiring on the part of small businesses slowed in 2017, despite the fact that the economy improved during the year.

According to news in CNBC, citing data from Paychex, the Small Business Job Index finished the year at 99.70 after dipping 0.16 percent in December and 0.78 percent for all of 2017. Hourly earnings were at $26.14, up 2.76 percent year over year and 2.85 percent for all of 2017 at small businesses around the country on average.

“While small business jobs growth slowed this year, it’s important to recall that small businesses led the hiring surge coming out of the recession and maintained high levels of growth for quite some time,” said Martin Mucci, Paychex president and CEO, said in a report covered by CNBC. “We still have moderate job growth. Wages are up just under 3 percent. So, we expect lower job growth, but still moderate and pretty straightforward.”

When it came to small business hiring, Paychex said Tennessee led the charge in small business job growth, with Arizona in first play for hourly earnings growths. Paychex said small business manufacturing jobs are also increasing.

As for tax reform, Paychex recently surveyed small businesses that have under 50 employees and found that around 50 percent expect to benefit from the tax reform. What’s more, around 80 percent of survey respondents said they would invest the savings, while two-thirds said they will use the savings to increase the wage they are paying.

Despite the slowdown in hiring, small businesses enjoyed a strong 2017, particular ones selling via Amazon, which recently said most of the items sold on its platform come from small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), leading to big business for the retail giant. Reports in CNBC last Wednesday (Dec. 27) said Amazon’s collaborative efforts with SMBs are a win-win for both parties. Most of the business seen by small firms stems from Amazon’s B2B service Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which allows SMBs to sell goods on the platform and outsource logistics like packaging, shipping and customer service to the eCommerce company.