CBIZ Small Business Employment Index Reveals Another Retreat In Hiring
September 2, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The August CBIZ Small Business Employment Index (SBEI), a barometer for hiring trends among companies with 300 or fewer employees, decreased by .36% last month.
In July, the SBEI suffered an even worse decline of .90%. Additional take-away points from the August data set include:
• Of the companies that were surveyed, the data shows that
26% reported a decrease in employee headcount, while 23% increased staffing.
Fifty-one percent of the companies involved in the survey maintained their
number of employees.
• According to the first CBIZ Small Business Market Survey,
a survey offered to the companies involved in the SBEI, almost 28% are looking
to deploy growth strategies in the coming year, focused primarily on marketing
and e-commerce.
• In terms of employment, more than 49% of the market survey
respondents were looking to add workers in the next three months, while more
than 37% indicated they will maintain their current workforce levels. That may
not be enough to keep pace with the growth of the labor pool, translating to
either consistent unemployment levels or the potential for a mild improvement
over the next quarter.