SMALL BIZ BITS: Hiring Growth Stalls
Small- and Medium-Size Businesses Turn to Contract Workers
Hiring growth by small business in the year’s first quarter stalled completely, as owners remained cautious about the economic outlook, according to SurePayroll Inc., a Chicago-area provider of payroll management services to businesses with up to 100 employees. And the average paycheck shrank 1%.
California and Virginia suffered the sharpest hiring slowdowns, with near zero growth this year, compared to 7% to 8% same time last year.
The result: Nationally, 3.27 percent of small business workers are now contract employees, up from 2.99 percent in March 2004 and 3.2 percent in December 2004.
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