The Paychex | IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch, compiled from aggregated payroll data of approximately 350,000 clients on the Paychex human capital management (HCM) suite, has been released and has given us some important information
The Small Business Jobs Index increased 4.33 percent from March to 98.34 in April, a positive indicator of job growth returning to pre-pandemic levels.
“A return to full employment is not complete. However, the Small Business Jobs Index returned to its pre-pandemic peak, seen in February 2020,” said James Diffley, chief regional economist at IHS Markit. “We’re encouraged by the progress in job growth we see in the April numbers.”
What does this mean?
Well for businesses owners it is some much-needed good news after what has been one of the hardest years for companies across the globe.
The unemployment rate in this country was at an all-time high during lockdown with many employees ending up on a furlough. This, needless to say, hurt a lot of businesses financially and some regrettably have not been able to recover. But those who have managed to weather out the storm can finally see an end to this pandemic, and with that hope comes new possibilities and a chance to grow.
Small businesses had it the worst during the pandemic. We didn’t have the luxury of having a disposable income that we could afford to lose. The government offered it best in the way of grants for small businesses but these were small sums that mostly were gone as soon as they came.
However, with the reported increase in employment in the small business sector we can be hopeful that this is the beginning of a turnaround for small businesses.
What does this mean for the small business sector?
The rise in small business jobs shows a gradual shift from mainstream companies to smaller more local businesses. This can be seen by many high street retailers going out of business or being bought by online shopping companies.
Small businesses have seen a rise in popularity as most people prefer to work for a smaller business than a large corporation. Why is this? It could be down to the ruthlessness of many large businesses during the coronavirus pandemic as they fired handfuls of employees by the dozen to keep their heads above the red.
Whilst many small businesses founded a sense of community as they stuck together during hardships and pulled through.
How will business owners’ benefit?
Business owners will now have a fresh pool of skilled individuals that are approaching them looking for a placement. This means more skilled workers investing their time into your company, leading to increased quality and quantity of your product.
This boom in jobs is a great way for small businesses that have been knocked down by the coronavirus to bounce back!
If you manage your finances just right and are able to keep a stable balance for the future months to come then you will be in a great position where you can get out of that business survival mentality and move on to thinking about business living.
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At Seagrave French, we treat our clients the way we would like to be treated ourselves. We know that our clients are striving to do the best for themselves, their families and their businesses.
We develop solid working relationships; we want to understand you as well as your business. We want to understand what makes you tick and where you want to go.
And then we’ll work hard to help get you there!