+24,500 jobs | +0.19%
In the US in September, small businesses with one to nine employees created 24,500 jobs, an increase of 0.19% since August. Nationally, these businesses now employ 13,170,100 people, up from 13,145,600.* This is the fourth consecutive month of small business employment growth in the US.
“Recent developments provide a glimmer of hope, as indicated by the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index. Since June 2023, the index has been reporting consecutive months of positive small business employment growth, marking a noteworthy turnaround.”
– Professor Ufuk Akcigit
Small business employment grew in seven sectors in September
In September, small business employment grew in 7 of the 12 sectors covered by the Index. The top 3 sectors that added the most small business jobs in September were:
- Leisure and hospitality (NAICS 71 & 72): added 4,400 jobs, with a monthly growth rate of 0.28%. This sector now employs 1,554,100 people in hotels, bars, restaurants, theaters and other small businesses in the entertainment and recreation industries.
- Education and health services (NAICS 61 & 62): added 2,200 jobs, with a monthly growth rate of 0.09%. This sector now employs 2,362,000 people in small businesses. Education includes business training, sports coaching, and language schools, as well as colleges and universities. Health services cover both physical and mental health care. The sector has consistently expanded small business employment since June.
- Agriculture, natural resources, and mining (NAICS 11 & 21): added 900 jobs, with a monthly growth rate of 0.5%. This sector now employs 185,400 people in small businesses. Agriculture includes farming, forestry, fishing, and hunting. Natural resources and mining cover oil and gas extraction, raw materials, and associated support services.
Small business employment decreased again in the manufacturing sector (NAICS 31-33), down by 0.21% to 1,240,800 jobs; with 2,600 fewer jobs compared to August. This was the largest decrease in jobs across all sectors covered by the Index. The fastest falling small business employment, however, was in the transport and warehousing sector (NAICS 48-49), with a monthly decrease of 0.54%, equivalent to 300 fewer jobs.
Small business employment grew in all eight US regions
The Southeast region created the most small business jobs in September — 4,300 in total — with a monthly growth rate of 0.14%. This is the fourth consecutive month of growth for the region, which now has 3,160,200 small business jobs. The Southeast includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Index provides employment data insights for the following four states in the Southeast:
- Florida: created 2,900 small business jobs with 0.35% monthly growth to a total of 831,400 jobs
- Virginia: created 200 small business jobs with 0.07% monthly growth to a total of 324,900 jobs
- North Carolina: lost 100 small business jobs, down by 0.01% to a total of 400,000 jobs
- Georgia: lost 900 small business jobs, down by 0.22% to a total of 400,000 jobs.
The Plains region had the highest rate of small business job growth in September at 0.23% — adding 2,100 small business jobs for a new total of 897,600. This region includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Ufuk Akcigit, the Arnold C. Harberger Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, said: “Recent developments provide a glimmer of hope, as indicated by the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index. Since June 2023, the index has been reporting consecutive months of positive small business employment growth, marking a noteworthy turnaround. This rebound aligns with the decelerating inflation trend. Core inflation registered a consecutive decrease last month, sliding from 5.6% to 4.3% since March 2023.
“The resurgence in employment became apparent in the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index, which indicated a 0.19% uptick in employment among businesses with fewer than ten employees. It’s worth noting that this increase, while positive, shows a somewhat softer performance compared to the 0.59% surge observed in August.
“Mixed signals were visible at the sectoral level in small businesses. The agriculture, natural resources, and mining sector once again drove the highest growth across sectors at 0.50%, but this growth falls behind the 1.27% growth recorded by the sector in August. Energy prices are much lower than they were a year ago, which helps explain stronger activity across sectors, but prices increased by 10.5% in September from August. The leisure and hospitality sector recorded the largest net increase of 4,400 in employment by small firms with employment levels reaching back to pre-pandemic levels in the sector.
Meanwhile, certain sectors faced more pronounced challenges. These include the transportation and warehousing sector which recorded the fastest contraction of 0.54% in employment in September and the manufacturing sector recorded the largest net decline with 2,600 jobs estimated to be lost in September. Steep increases in the costs of auto loan payments might have been a key contributing factor to these declines.”
Get all the details from the interactive Small Business Index dashboard.
About the Index
The Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index is a timely new measure of small business employment and hiring in the US, Canada, and the UK. The Index launched in March 2023 and is updated monthly. The Index uses purpose-built economic models to normalize anonymized QuickBooks data to reflect the general population of small businesses in each country; it is not a reflection of Intuit’s business. The Index was developed in collaboration with leading economist Professor Ufuk Akcigit and an international team of researchers and academics.
Methodology
The Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index creates aggregated data outputs from a sample of anonymized QuickBooks Online Payroll customer records which are calibrated using statistical methods to create modeled results which better reflect the general population of small businesses in each country, as represented by published official statistics. Statistical adjustment ensures the Index truly reflects employment and job vacancy changes rather than trends in the
Read more or download the full methodology here.
Rounded values
Total and monthly changes in employment and job vacancies have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Monthly changes and growth rates are calculated before total employment or job vacancy values are rounded. Rates have been rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Seasonal adjustments
The Index’s data insights are seasonally adjusted to limit the effect of seasonal patterns in employment and hiring throughout the year, which lead to regular fluctuations in workforce growth and contraction.
Employment growth formula
Employment growth(t) = [Employment(t)-Employment(t-1)]/[0.5*Employment(t)+0.5*Employment(t-1)]
*Employment levels
The Index produces a monthly prediction of employment growth rates by country, region, and sector. In order to translate these growth rates into the number of jobs/vacancies gained or lost, the growth rates are multiplied by the prior month’s predicted employment levels, except during the months when official statistics are published. During those months, the latest official employment levels that have been reported are used in the calculation instead of the Index’s prior month’s predicted employment levels. As a result, the Index’s predicted total employment levels may at times differ from the predicted growth rates. Official statistics are published at different frequencies depending on the country ranging from monthly to quarterly.
Time series
The Index uses data going back to January 2015 in the US and Canada and to January 2018 in the UK. Published at the earliest opportunity every month, the Index shows the number of people employed by small businesses (in the US and Canada) or the number of job vacancies at small businesses (in the UK) in the previous month and how that number has changed since the month before. The Index helps to eliminate almost all of the time lags in official statistics by providing estimated projections of what those statistics will ultimately show when they are published.
Sample sizes
The total sample across all three countries is around 424,000 small businesses. The US sample is almost 333,000 small businesses. The Canadian sample is almost 66,000 small businesses. The UK sample is almost 25,000 small businesses. The minimum sample sizes for regions or sectors to be included in the Index are 1,000 small businesses in the US, 800 small businesses in Canada, and 200 small businesses in the UK.
Target populations
In the US and UK, the Index targets the populations of small businesses with one to nine employees. In Canada, the target population is small businesses with one to 19 employees. The differences ensure the Index’s data insights are consistent with official statistics in each country, which are used for benchmarking during the calibration process. Timely data insights for these populations of small businesses are particularly valuable since most datasets fail to cover this portion of the economy well. Please note: Unlike in the US and Canada, the UK Index uses job vacancy data for calibration rather than employment data because official employment statistics are not currently available for small businesses on a monthly basis.
External data sources
External data sources used alongside the samples of anonymized QuickBooks Online Payroll customer data include:
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Business Employment Dynamics (BED) and Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis regions
Geographic regions
- USA data insights are divided into Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) regions
Industry sectors
- USA data insights are available by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) sectors
This article originally appeared on the Quickbooks Resource Center and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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When you’re thinking of starting a new business, there are plenty of possibilities to consider. But what if you don’t have a large startup budget ready to go? Doesn’t that limit your dreams severely?Whether you’re trying to launch a side hustle to supplement your day job or you just want to be your own boss, there are many businesses you can start that don’t require huge sums of money.
Explore this list of 23 of our best small business ideas. The sooner you get started, the sooner your small business might be the next great success story.
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At-home workouts became popular during the pandemic restrictions, and it’s still a favorite go-to for busy people who need exercise. If you’re a fitness lover, you may be able to launch an online training business in one of a number of different ways. An easy way to get started and build an audience is by making videos to post on YouTube or sell as a course. According to a survey by Personal Trainer Development Center, online-only trainers made $54,000 yearly on average prior to the pandemic.
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Web design is a skill set you can market as a freelancer, providing your services to multiple companies that need help with the usability and aesthetics of their sites. You can focus on helping design websites from scratch or on troubleshooting and/or redesigning existing websites, or even on a combination of both. Pay for web design may run at around $60 per hour and a full website design might pay between $5,000 and $10,000.
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Starting your own graphic design business is another easy option for people who have the talent and experience. If that’s you, you can launch a website with some portfolio pieces and start pitching potential clients. If you’ve already been a graphic designer for a company, you likely already have everything you need to get started. As of May 15, 2021, the average hourly pay for a graphic designer in the U.S. was $17.99.
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Life coaching can be an extremely satisfying business. You can pick a niche you’re passionate about, like career changes, productivity, health and fitness, or some other idea you find compelling. Getting certified as a professional coach may increase your clout and marketability. While that training probably won’t be free, you might consider it an investment and take out a loan to cover your tuition.
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Whether you’ve been a hobby sewer throughout your life or just picked up the new skill during the pandemic, you may be able to turn that interest into a business. You can specialize your services in any number of ways, like making alterations, designing custom home decor like curtains and pillows, or creating hand-sewn crafts to sell.
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Résumé writing is in demand, thanks to how many people are job hunting. If this is something you have a knack for, you can either find clients on your own or freelance for a résumé agency. The average yearly income for a full-time résumé writer is $42,745, but pay varies. Bear in mind you may be able to earn more if you have expertise in a specific industry. (Learn more atWhat is a Swaption?)
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Pet owners spare few expenses when it comes to pet care. And since many people adopted new pets during the pandemic, a pet walking or pet care business could provide a big market in many locations. Once you land your first few clients, you can then focus on getting referrals from those successes. Nationally, dog walkers make an average of $29,000 from dog walking, though it’s important to remember that it varies by region and that not all dog walkers view it as a full-time job.
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Gardens and landscaping became even more popular during the Covid lockdown. They remain favorite pursuits. If you’ve discovered that you have a green thumb, consider launching a landscaping or garden-care business to help your clients maintain beautiful yards all year long. Explore startup funding options to help finance new equipment if you need it.
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Cleaning houses is a service that’s in demand in just about every city and town across the country. Decide what particular types of services you’ll offer and collect the necessary supplies. Also consider getting a general liability insurance policy to protect yourself and your new business since you’ll be in other peoples’ homes. House cleaning can pay from about $13.75 an hour to $19.75 an hour, but that may vary based on your location and what services exactly you’re providing, among other factors. (Learn more atOptions for a $50,000 Personal Loan)
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Starting any new business takes some work, but the rewards are often worth it. As you get more involved in a new business — and even as it gets more profitable — you may find you need to put more resources into it. You can launch your next idea by exploring financing options.
This article originally appeared on SoFi.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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