Hiring by small businesses in metro Atlanta rose again in May, according to one new report, continuing an upbeat trend that dates back at least to last summer.
The SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, which reflects hiring and pay data from 35,000 small businesses nationwide that use Sure Payroll's services, shows hiring increased 0.4 percent in the metro area last month. It was up 0.5 percent in April.
Hiring among small businesses here has now increased every month since SurePayroll began publishing reports for the 35 largest individual metro areas in the summer of 2011.
Year over year, hiring in the Atlanta area is up 4.6 percent.
The local hiring numbers compare favorably with those of the nation as a whole, which were down 0.1 percent, and with figures from other markets. Charlotte, Norfolk, Orlando and San Antonio were the only other metro areas measured to experience larger hiring gains than Atlanta over the last year.
SurePayroll has been producing its trend-spotting scorecard since 2004. The average size of the businesses in its study is eight employees, so-called "micro-businesses." The company bills its report as an economic indicator.
Another monthly report, the Intuit Payroll Small Business Index, found that small business employment across Georgia also increased, by 0.3 percent in May. Intuit uses data collected from 78,000 small businesses with fewer than 20 employees.
Intuit, which measures the revenues as well as the employment of its customers, said that while both revenues and hiring are improving for small businesses nationwide, more growth is needed for them to reach pre-recession levels.
"The employment and revenue indexes tell a consistent story," said Susan Woodward, an economist working with Intuit. "Both indicate there is a recovery under way. We need growth at this level for two more years for small business employment to return to the level we saw in early 2007."
