There was good news on the unemployment front in July. Last month, the national jobless rate dropped to 5.4%, the lowest level since the start of the pandemic, and 943,000 jobs were added to the economy.
Small business hiring definitely helped fuel that trend. In fact, a new report by Paychex reveals that small businesses seem to be in pretty good shape, as measured by hiring activity.
In July, the Small Business Jobs Index rose 0.85% compared to June. That may seem like a modest increase, but actually, it represents the second-strongest one-month increase since 2010, when the economy was in the midst of recovering from the Great Recession.
The index is also up more than 1% compared to the first quarter of the year, and it’s up 5% from the same time period last year. That suggests small businesses are in much better shape now than they were earlier in the pandemic.
Not only did small businesses do more hiring, but they also upped their wages. Hourly earnings growth rose to 3.11% in July compared to 2.84% in June.
