Release Details

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2014-- The CBIZ Small Business Employment Index (SBEI), a barometer for hiring trends that surveys data from 3,500 companies with 300 or fewer employees, increased by 1.25 percent during the month of April. Previous SBEI readings revealed an increase of 1.01 percent during March, preceded by a decline of .40 percent in February, the last negative reading of the SBEI during 2014.

The jobs growth revealed in the SBEI follows Wednesday’s ADP April survey, which estimates that the private sector added 220,000 workers for the month, the highest monthly total for the year. This total beat Wall Street’s forecast of 210,000. The payroll processor also revised its previous survey tally upward to 209,000 jobs gained from an initially reported figure of 191,000 for March.

“Despite a very anemic GDP number for the first quarter of 2014, macro data continues to show solid economic improvement in the March and April periods, and our index reflects this,” says Philip Noftsinger, business unit president for CBIZ Payroll Services. “As the country continues to thaw out from the winter and full- or part-time seasonal workers are added to payrolls, we could see continued expansion and healthier employment prospects.”

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 SBEI jobs numbers include:

• At-a-glance: 25 percent of the companies in the index added to their payrolls in April while 21 percent decreased employee bodies. 54 percent of the companies surveyed held steady with staff totals.
• Small business sector: While April is historically a positive hiring month for small businesses, this report is the strongest since April 2011. This indicates that small businesses are continuing to see a higher level of demand year over year and matching that demand with increased employment. A report from the U.S. Commerce Department on personal spending, which is the highest level since August 2009, could be the fuel behind the March and April SBEI results.
• What to watch: Assuming a geopolitical stalemate continues, or perhaps even subsides in the Ukraine, we are hopeful for a positive report in May that would demonstrate a trend that could carry the economy to a much more positive second half of the year.

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.

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About CBIZ, Inc.

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, 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. As one of the nation’s largest brokers of employee benefits and property and casualty insurance, and one of the largest accounting and valuation companies in the United States, the Company’s services are provided through nearly 100 Company offices in 32 states. http://cbiz.com

Source: CBIZ, Inc.

Gregory FCA for CBIZ, Inc.
Jimmy Moock, 610-228-2125
Cell: 610-348-7849
jimmy@gregoryfca.com