Small businesses in the United States added 15,000 new jobs in March, totaling more than 895,000 jobs in the past four years, according to Intuit Inc.’s latest monthly Small Business Employment and Revenue Indexes.
The Intuit Small Business Indexes publish the latest information on small business activity, focusing on revenue, hiring and compensation trends. Employment Indexes are based on anonymous, aggregated data collected from more than 260,000 small business owners that use Intuit Online Payroll and QuickBooks Online Payroll.
Covering the Feb. 24 to March 23 period, Intuit Online Payroll and QuickBooks Online Payroll data found that though more jobs are being created, small business employee pay decreased .16 percent, down $4.30 from February.
Small business revenues also fell in February, declining about 1.7 percent on an annual scale. Real estate showed the largest decline in revenue, 6.3 percent on an annual basis, while professional services rose .2 percent.
According to Intuit’s economic analysis, small business employment level increases seen from February to March are marginal, but a two-cent wage raise for hourly employees in the past year, paired with March’s 0 percent inflation rate, reflects “real wage gains.”
Employment, which rose in nearly every state in March, saw its biggest declines in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Alabama.
In terms of industry performance, retail and accommodation followed real estate in largest declines. Analysis speculates that these declines are weather-related, noting that revenue figures are not adjusted for extreme weather.
