Intuit Inc., which provides payroll services for small employers, says the nation's smallest companies (firms with 20 employees or less) had fewer new hires last month than any time since October.
"It's a bad sign," said Susan Woodward, an economist who tracks small business employment for Intuit. "Small businesses hire first — and they're losing their steam."
To calculate its estimate of national hiring, Intuit uses payroll information from its 56,000 small-business customers.
Intuit's data show that small businesses hired just 18,000 additional workers last month. In February, 60,000 were added.. February was smack in the calm eye of the downturn, before the second leg of the recession began.
With no Fed money printing and increasing regulatory burdens, it is going to be very difficult for small businesses to crank up again, anytime soon. If anything small businesses may start to show negative employee growth.
Frankly, small businesses have become their own worst enemies. The grubby little bean counters at the Chambers of Commerce have embraced socialism almost as much as the proles have. As long as they can get government subsidies, cheap illegal immigrant labor that produces huge externalities, and the illusion of tax "breaks," they're on the socialist bandwagon.
ReplyDeleteFree markets require freedom. The independent yeoman farmers, ranchers, and merchants of yesteryear were proponents of freedom; they just wanted (generally) to be left alone.
But today's small business owner is commonly a slimy little weasel who will nibble at anything he can find. He doesn't want "too much freedom," since weasels like a maze of rules for them to hide in.
Want to see truly productive small businesses? Go to Hong Kong. They've got capitalism.