As the labor market continues to improve, some small businesses might need to consider obtaining a small business loan to attract the best talent available. Several recent jobs reports released by industry-leading human resource companies indicate a continued strengthening of the labor market. This can greatly impact small business owners, who must try to incentivize top talent to choose their company over larger enterprises that have the resources to lavish better pay options or more robust benefit packages.
However, with a greater need to attract the best potential workers, providing a signing bonus or additional benefits can be a make-or-break option for smaller employers. Thankfully, alternative financing options are available for owners who need quick capital for these crucial hirings.
Paychex sees growth
The Paychex-IHS Small Business Jobs Index continued its upward trajectory into February with a gain of 0.10 percent to reach 100.75. This reading remains just 0.08 below 2015’s high point set a year ago in February.
“After a strong start to 2016, the Paychex | IHS Small Business Jobs Index increased further in February as the pace of small business growth is up 0.33 percent in the last quarter,” IHS Chief Regional Economists James Diffley explained. “Moreover, the back-to back gains in January and February were the first consecutive increases in a year.”
The state of Washington topped the list for the second straight month, while the Mountain region remained as the best-performing regional index. For metropolitan areas, Dallas held onto its first place spot while Seattle maintained its second-place finish.
ADP sees small businesses surging
Not only did the Paychex-IHS Small Business Jobs Index reveal a strengthening jobs market, but the ADP Small Business Report also showed that employment in this sector increased by 76,000 jobs in February. While companies employing 1-19 workers hired 37,000 new individuals, this size group fell slightly below small businesses with 20-49 staff members, where 38,000 people were hired.
Speaking with SmallBizTrends, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics noted how this large increase bucked global economic trends and far exceeded economists’ expectation.
“It was expected that recent volatility in the global financial markets would have resulted in fallout in the economy, but that has not been the case,” said Zandi. “Despite market prices that were previously overvalued, there has been no weakening in the labor market. The American job machine remains in high gear. Energy and manufacturing remain blemishes on the job market, but other sectors continue to add strongly to payrolls.”