Paychex IHS Small Business Jobs Index, a small business jobs index used to indicate the overall economy of nearly 95 percent of all employers in the U.S., showed a gain in November with employment levels moving from 100.34 to 100.42. This number indicates that the pace of employment growth is currently 0.42 percent faster than in the base period ten years ago,” said chief regional economist at Paychex, James Diffley. For over 50 consecutive months, the index has been over 100.
Though a decrease from November of the prior year by .31 percent, it is still an increase from October of this year. Leading the index performance was the Mountain region, followed by Texas and Florida.
Trailing at the lowest employment growth was the Manufacturing sector, with “Other Services” as the leading category.
State employment trends indicate Washington as improving by 0.45 percent to 103.20, remaining the highest ranked state. New Jersey takes the prize for the highest growth rate among states, with an increase from last year of 2.86 percent. New Jersey’s growth rate actually slowed in 2014 and is now seeing a comeback.
Metropolitan employment trends are led by Dallas, at 106.54, over 2.3 percent up from 2014. Sitting lowest on the index is Houston, down to 99.76, the first times it has been under 100 in the last 5 years. New York leads with the best one-month increase at 0.80 percent.
As previously mentioned, the Manufacturing sector remains the lowest ranked industry, decreasing in November by 1.04 percent year to year. Construction and Financial Activities, however, had the lowest one-month growth rate, decreasing by 0.11 percent.
