Release Details

- Recovery remains slow, but steady, as trend continues -

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 3, 2013-- The CBIZ Small Business Employment Index (SBEI), a barometer for hiring trends for more than 3,500 companies with 300 or fewer employees, increased by .43 percent during April, following an impressive increase of 1.25 percent in March.

In comparison, ADP’s April jobs survey illustrated that the private sector added just 119,000 jobs, far below analysts’ estimates of 150,000 jobs. Additionally, this month’s numbers also fell short of March’s revised tally, which was lowered to 131,000 added jobs.

“The CBIZ SBEI inched up in April, after a major move forward the previous period, which displayed surprising signs of growth,” says Philip Noftsinger, business unit president for CBIZ Payroll Services.

To view and/or use a graphic illustration that tracks and illustrates the employment index, visit our blog here.¹

Additional take-away points from the April data set include:

• At-a-glance: Of the companies surveyed, 24 percent increased staffing while 23 percent decreased staffing and 53 percent maintained their number of employees.
• Small business sector: With three months of consistent positive gains, we can assume that increased consumer spending is generating an appetite for small businesses to deploy labor to meet those demands.
• What to watch: With the lift in demand, new employment is struggling to keep up with overall population growth. When taking a deeper dive into the March BLS numbers, it shows that workers continue to exit the labor force, contributing to the overall stability of the unemployment rate. While one might think these are baby boomers opting for retirement; however, over three-fifths of the group exiting the labor market was in the 25-54 age range.

“It will be critical for those assessing labor improvements to focus more on the details of the BLS numbers this Friday, rather than the overall unemployment rate itself, as that can lead to false conclusions as to the health of the recovery. Major headwinds on the macro level continue to mute what would normally be more opportunistic hiring by our small business owners,” says Noftsinger.

CBIZ Payroll Services manages payroll services for more than 3,500 businesses. Its index reflects a broad array of industries and geographies corresponding to the markets across the United States where CBIZ provides human capital services. The data represented by the SBEI is derived from a segment of employers not completely accounted for by the ADP and Federal BLS employment reports.

Editor’s note:

(1) The SBEI illustration is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://blog.cbiz.com.

CBIZ, Inc. provides professional business services that help clients better manage their finances and employees. CBIZ provides its clients with financial services including accounting, tax, financial advisory, government health care consulting, risk advisory, merger and acquisition advisory, real estate consulting, and valuation services. Employee services include employee benefits consulting, property and casualty insurance, retirement plan consulting, payroll, life insurance, HR consulting, and executive recruitment. CBIZ also provides medical practice management services. As one of the nation’s largest brokers of employee benefits and property and casualty insurance, and one of the largest accounting, valuation, and medical practice management companies in the United States, the Company’s services are provided through more than 150 Company offices in 38 states. Visit our website at www.cbiz.com and our blog, “Human Capitalizing,” at http://blog.cbiz.com.

Source: CBIZ, Inc.

Gregory FCA for CBIZ, Inc.
Matt Goldstein, 610-228-2097
Cell: 609-314-0288
matthew@gregoryfca.com