Small business job creation experienced a slight uptick in February, according to Intuit's Small Business Employment Index.
Specifically, small business employment – or jobs at companies with fewer than 20 employees – grew by 0.2 percent between January 24 and February 23. This equates to an annual growth rate of 2.9 percent, with approximately 45,000 new jobs added.
"We saw another month of tepid improvement for small businesses in February, echoing pretty much all of the other indicators of economic activity," said economist and index creator Susan Woodward. "As an overall trend, employment is up modestly, but the number of hours worked by hourly employees is about the same as last month, seasonally adjusted."
The average monthly hours worked decreased by 0.04 percent – or a nearly negligible six minutes. Average monthly compensation also rose since last month, up 0.15 percent – or $4 per worker.
Wall Street Pit reports that February's less-than-impactful rise marked the fourth straight month of decelerated growth, and the slowest month-over-month percentage increase since March 2011.
Intuit based its figures on companies with workers that use its payrolling software, and plans to recalibrate the numbers to lower levels in the coming months.
