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Small-business hiring increased in October

Posted on November 6th, 2013 Read time: 1 minutes

Even though October brought a slew of concerns revolving around the partial government shutdown and unsteady budget talks small businesses fared well, managing to add more employees. According to a report by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, small firms added an average of 0.11 employees during the month.

The data comes as a surprise, as worries about a default on government loans caused a dip in consumer confidence early in October. The closure of national parks and monuments also caused many small businesses reliant on tourism to suffer. This is not to mention the large number who were hurt by the temporary closure of the U.S. Small Business Administration, who halted their processing of business loans.

What the NFIB survey indicated, however, was that small businesses, as a whole, were not hurt enough to cut staff. Twelve percent of owners said they added an average of 3.5 workers over the past few months while only 9 percent said they reduced staff. Furthermore the number of businesses who said they hired temporary workers saw a modest increase from September, with 15 percent reporting they have temps on board.

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