The last several years have been very good to small businesses, which have seemed to directly benefit from the nation’s economic recovery. That has been repeatedly reflected in all kinds of ways, and particularly hiring efforts by these companies. The latter trend certainly continued last month.
In all, companies of all sizes added some 230,000 nonfarm private sector jobs from September to October, and of that number, small and medium-sized businesses tacked on the lion’s share, at a combined 224,000, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report. The single largest segment of this growth came from medium businesses (those with between 50 and 499 workers), which added 122,000 jobs. However, there was significant improvement for smaller companies as well; those with between one and 19 workers took on 53,000 more people, while companies with 20 to 49 employees added 49,000.
Both greatly outstripped the additions by larger companies, which added just 5,000 altogether, the report said. Those with between 500 and 999 employees took on 14,000 new workers, while huge companies with 1,000 or more actually cut 8,000 jobs.
“The job market is steadily picking up pace,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, which helps ADP compile the data. “Job growth is strong and broad-based across industries and company sizes. At this pace of job growth unemployment and underemployment is quickly declining. The job market will soon be tight enough to support a meaningful acceleration in wage growth.”
Other notes on the improvements
The 230,000 or so jobs added for October was up from 225,000 in the prior month, and 196,000 on an annual basis, the report said. It was also the single largest increase seen since June, when 297,000 jobs were added nationally. The only other month in the past year which surpassed it was November 2013, when 245,000 new hires were made.
The two biggest industries in which these hires were made were almost neck-and-neck as well, the report said. Professional or businesses services (53,000) and trade, transportation, and utilities (47,000) greatly outstripped third-place construction (28,000).
Owners who want to free up a little more money to be able to make more hires in the near future might want to consider starting by finding more affordable small business insurance. For instance, cutting costs for general liability insurance could go a long way, by saving as much as a few thousand dollars per year.
