Two new reports suggest hiring by small businesses in the metro area and statewide is on the rise.
In metro Atlanta, hiring increased 0.5 percent in March, according to the latest monthly report from SurePayroll’s Small Business Scorecard. Across Georgia, employment was up 0.4 percent, according to Intuit Payroll's Small Business Employment Index.
SurePayroll's data shows that hiring by small businesses in metro Atlanta has increased every month since the company began last summer to report separately for 35 major markets.
“Small businesses are seeing some demand rebounding in their businesses, and very few are talking about a pullback in hiring. These are good signs for the future,” said Michael Alter, CEO of SurePayroll, the online payroll service.
Paycheck size declined at small businesses the company measured in metro Atlanta by 0.1 percent in March.
Each month, SurePayroll analyzes payroll data from 33,000 small-business customers. The average customer has seven employees.
Intuit, which uses data from 77,800 small-business customers with fewer than 20 employees, said employment nationally grew 0.3 percent, the highest rate in more than two years.
However, Susan Woodward, an economist who helped create the index for Intuit, said, "We are not out of the woods yet. While the various indicators of this market are the strongest we've seen in a while, the rate of increase will not get us back to full employment anytime soon."
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