The CBIZ
Small Business Employment Index (SBEI), a barometer for hiring
trends for more than 3,500 companies with 300 or fewer employees,
increased by .43 percent during April, following an impressive increase
of 1.25 percent in March.
In comparison, ADP’s April jobs survey illustrated that the private
sector added just 119,000 jobs, far below analysts’ estimates of 150,000
jobs. Additionally, this month’s numbers also fell short of March’s
revised tally, which was lowered to 131,000 added jobs.
“The CBIZ SBEI inched up in April, after a major move forward the
previous period, which displayed surprising signs of growth,” says
Philip Noftsinger, business unit president for CBIZ
Payroll Services.
To view and/or use a graphic illustration that tracks and illustrates
the employment index, visit
our blog here.¹
Additional take-away points from the April data set include:
-
At-a-glance: Of the companies surveyed, 24 percent increased
staffing while 23 percent decreased staffing and 53 percent maintained
their number of employees.
-
Small business sector: With three months of consistent positive
gains, we can assume that increased consumer spending is generating an
appetite for small businesses to deploy labor to meet those demands.
-
What to watch: With the lift in demand, new employment is
struggling to keep up with overall population growth. When taking a
deeper dive into the March BLS numbers, it shows that workers continue
to exit the labor force, contributing to the overall stability of the
unemployment rate. While one might think these are baby boomers opting
for retirement; however, over three-fifths of the group exiting the
labor market was in the 25-54 age range.
“It will be critical for those assessing labor improvements to focus
more on the details of the BLS numbers this Friday, rather than the
overall unemployment rate itself, as that can lead to false conclusions
as to the health of the recovery. Major headwinds on the macro level
continue to mute what would normally be more opportunistic hiring by our
small business owners,” says Noftsinger.
CBIZ Payroll Services manages payroll services for more than 3,500
businesses. Its index reflects a broad array of industries and
geographies corresponding to the markets across the United States where
CBIZ provides human capital services. The data represented by the SBEI
is derived from a segment of employers not completely accounted for by
the ADP and Federal BLS employment reports.
Editor’s note:
(1) The SBEI illustration is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://blog.cbiz.com.
CBIZ, Inc. provides professional business services that help clients
better manage their finances and employees. CBIZ provides its clients
with financial services including accounting, tax, financial advisory,
government health care consulting, risk advisory, merger and acquisition
advisory, real estate consulting, and valuation services. Employee
services include employee benefits consulting, property and casualty
insurance, retirement plan consulting, payroll, life insurance, HR
consulting, and executive recruitment. CBIZ also provides medical
practice management services. As one of the nation’s largest brokers of
employee benefits and property and casualty insurance, and one of the
largest accounting, valuation, and medical practice management companies
in the United States, the Company’s services are provided through more
than 150 Company offices in 38 states. Visit our website at www.cbiz.com
and our blog, “Human Capitalizing,” at http://blog.cbiz.com.
