Recently, we’ve seen corporate earnings soaring, large corporations becoming increasingly profitable, and the stock market remaining relatively stable. However, one important area of our economy where we haven’t seen much growth is hiring. SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard recently release data showing the lack-luster hiring numbers.
The first few months of 2012 showed little to no growth in hiring, and the month of April was no different—small business hiring was down .1% and paychecks down .3%. Despite the lack of hiring, small business owners remain optimistic about the US small business economy. Roughly 65% of small business owners stated their optimism.
This optimism signals the confidence amongst small business owners, even though the businesses aren’t prospering to the point of bringing on more employees. Perhaps much of this confidence lies in the small business owner’s ability to stabilize their business through tough economic times. This ability to remain stable may point to one of the reasons why small business hiring has remained non-existent.
As a small business owner you’ve found a way to keep your business going through an economic downturn. It’s easy to understand that you’re reluctant to change your business, fearing that any slight change may trigger the downfall of your business. Spending additional money on hiring and employing additional staff may be a difficult pill to swallow. Why risk the success of your business by putting money into a new employee? It’s this question that has likely led many small business owners to hesitate hiring new employees.
Furthermore, the data also pointed out that for those small business owners that are looking to bring on additional employees, nearly 40% are struggling to find qualified candidates for positions in technology, sales, marketing, customer service, and administrative work. This points to the ability (or inability) of our education system to prepare individuals for the 21st Century workforce. In our economy, even entry-level positions require a minimum competency level to work with computer databases, solve complex problems, and interact with high-tech machinery on a daily basis. Our education system must adapt its focus to better equip job-seekers with adequate skills and knowledge to be hired.
What does all of this mean for small business owners? It means that we should remain cautiously optimistic, and we should aware that hiring numbers will remain low so long as we continue to fear hiring new employees. Even though our economic recovery may remain slow, we can still be optimistic that we’re heading in the right direction. Whether our pace is a crawl or a sprint, we’re still taking positives steps at this point–which is something small business owners can remain cautiously optimistic about. If you’ve sustained your small business through the last four years, there’s a good chance you’re doing something right.
If you’re looking to hire a new employee or you’d like to discuss growth strategies for your business, please contact us or subscribe to our free Q & A service.