Small Business Pushes Recovery Forward Despite Lull in Large Business Growth

While large companies have slowed in hiring in the first quarter of FY2015, small business continued to push forward last March according to payroll processing company ADP. Small companies added 108,000 workers, up from 105,000 in February making March the second consecutive month of growth since January and almost the strongest in nearly a decade.

Gains were divided almost evenly, with businesses fewer than 20 employees adding 57,000 new workers to the workforce, and 51,000 workers contributed by companies between 20 and 50 employees. In addition, according to the National Federation of Independent Business’ Chief Economists Bill Dunkelberg, one in ten small businesses expect to increase their payrolls in the upcoming months. According to the NFIB that also indexes economic growth in relation to business size, March continued to build upon the readings since the beginning of the new year with levels jumping to points not seen since 2005.

This upward trend for small enterprises continues despite a recent drop-off from large corporations. According to ADP, total employment has fallen in the United States every month since November with all companies accounting for 284,000 jobs in February and falling to 189,000 in March.