As unemployment rates approach pre-recession levels of 5%, ADP’s researchers are showing that small business continues to drive the charge.
The national payroll company’s Small Business Report for March reveals that small business employment was up overall by 108,000 positions in March.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Situation report for the same month showed a gain of an estimated 126,000 jobs across the country for employers of all sizes.
ADP’s report is prepared using publically available data specific to employers with 49 or few employees. The data is collected for pay periods that include the week of the 12th of each month and is processed using statistical methodologies similar to those used by BLS to issue its monthly reports.
ADP’s undertaking is created in conjunction with Moody’s Analytics. ADP breaks out small businesses specifically because of the “important contribution that small businesses make to economic growth.”
Growth Across the Board
March’s job increases were witnessed in both very small companies and those considered larger by comparison.
ADP’s report showed a gain of an estimated 57,000 positions in companies classified as “very small,” with 1 to 19 employees.
Other small businesses, those with 20 to 49 employees, added another 51,000 jobs to the economy in March, ADP’s report revealed.
Service Industry Leading the Charge
Service- related businesses grew the most in March with an estimated 98,000 jobs added. Goods-producing businesses, however, also saw growth with an estimated 10,000 positions created in March.
Of those gains, job growth based on employer size is as follows:
- Goods-producing – Very small businesses, 5,000 jobs; other small, 4,000
- Service-providing – Very small businesses, 51,000 jobs; other small, 47,000 jobs
ADP’s findings in relation to economy segment tracked well with BLS’ report on the overall employment situation, as well.
BLS found the majority of the 126,000 jobs added to the economy in March, from employers both large and small, came from the services arena, as well.
Strong gains were recorded across the board by BLS in such industry segments as health care, retail trade and professional and business services.
ADP’s Small Business Report is a subset of the company’s National Employment Report, which has been a monthly undertaking since 2006.
The reports provide a snapshot of America’s nonfarm, private sector employment based on payroll data. They are not meant to predict the BLS job number that is released by that agency every month approximately two days following ADP’s release.
The company, however, considers its report “a better predictor of the BLS’s final, revised numbers” for each month.
