Category Archives: Job Search
Intuit Inc. reports Small Business Employment Index Shows 0.3 Percent Job Growth for December
Small business employment continued to show growth in December with hours worked up and wages flat.
“We might expect that after months of high hours per employee, that businesses would hire and hours would fall back to normal. Instead, we see hiring up and hours worked up also. These are good signs for the recovery.”
Those were among the results of this month’s update of the Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq:INTU) Small Business Employment Index. The monthly report found that small business employment grew by 0.3 percent in December, equating to an annual growth rate of about 3.4 percent. This translates to approximately 57,000 new jobs created nationwide. The Index is based on figures from the country’s smallest businesses that use Intuit Online Payroll.
“Small business is still the most vigorous sector of the employment picture,” said Susan Woodward, the economist who worked with Intuit to create the Index. “We generally see a rise in employment for all businesses in December, but this year it is unusually strong. We can hardly see the recovery in overall national employment, but among small businesses, the recovery, albeit slow, is unambiguous.”
Based on this latest data, the employment growth rate for November was revised upward to 0.4 percent, equating to 73,000 jobs added for the month and a 4.4 percent annual growth rate. Since the growth trend first began in October 2009, small business jobs have increased by a revised estimate of 880,000.
Compensation Flat, Hours Worked Up
Total compensation per employee was flat in December while hours worked were up, compared to November.
Average monthly pay for all small business employees was $2,607 per month in December, a nearly 0.1 percent decline, which is considered flat, from the revised November figure of $2,609 per month. This translates to wages of about $31,300 per year, which is part-time work for many small business employees.
“The weakness of the overall employment picture is still reflected in small business compensation,” said Woodward. “Though small businesses are hiring and asking their people to work longer hours, they don’t have to pay more to get people. While compensation is flat, these numbers don’t mean that people didn’t get overtime and bonuses in December – they did. But on a seasonal and trend adjusted basis, compensation is not up.”
Small business hourly employees worked an average of 107.5 hours in December, translating to a 24.8-hour work week. This is a nearly 0.2 percent increase from the revised November figure of 107.3 hours.
“Hours are still strong,” added Woodward. “We might expect that after months of high hours per employee, that businesses would hire and hours would fall back to normal. Instead, we see hiring up and hours worked up also. These are good signs for the recovery.”
Small Business Employment by Geography
The Intuit Index also breaks down employment by census divisions and states across the country.
“All divisions continued to show employment growth except for the West North Central division, which continued to see job losses for the sixth month in a row,” said Cameron Schmidt, vice president of Intuit’s Employee Management Solutions division. “Most states saw increases in employment with Washington seeing the strongest increase month over month.”
| U.S. Census Division | Percent Change in Employment | ||
| East North Central | +0.2% | ||
| West North Central | -0.2% | ||
| Middle Atlantic | +0.3% | ||
| Mountain | +0.2% | ||
| New England | +0.4% | ||
| Pacific | +0.3% | ||
| South Atlantic | +0.3% | ||
| East South Central | +0.3% | ||
| West South Central | +0.4% |
Small Business Employment by U.S. Census Division continues to grow in most parts of the country except for the West North Central division. The data reflects employment from nearly 60,000 small business employers who use Intuit Online Payroll. The month-to-month changes are seasonally-adjusted and informative about the overall economy.
| State | Percent Change in Employment | |
| Arizona | +0.5% | |
| California | +0.2% | |
| Florida | +0.4% | |
| Georgia | +0% | |
| Illinois | +0% | |
| Maryland | +0.5% | |
| Massachusetts | +0.4% | |
| New Jersey | +0.5% | |
| New York | -0.1% | |
| North Carolina | +0.1% | |
| Texas | +0.5% | |
| Virginia | +0.4% | |
| Washington | +0.6% |
Small Business Employment by State is up for many states across the country with the highest increases month over month in Maryland and Washington. The states above reflect those for which Intuit Online Payroll has more than 1,000 small business firms represented. The month-to-month changes are seasonally-adjusted and informative about the overall economy.
About the Index
The Intuit Small Business Employment Index is based on aggregate and anonymous online employment data from nearly 60,000 small business employers, each with fewer than 20 employees. These small businesses use Intuit Online Payroll from Intuit, the No. 1 payroll provider with more than 1 million customers. These smallest employers are important to the economy as they comprise 87 percent of the total U.S. private employer base and employ nearly 20 million people. More information is available at: www.intuitinc.com/payrollindex.
Intuit reports data for three categories: small business employment, compensation and hours worked. Intuit analyzes and publishes the data at the beginning of each month. The Index also includes employment data broken down by geography. As with the government data, there may be revisions to the Intuit Index numbers. These revisions are partly due to calculations using the latest month of new Intuit data. These calculations include re-computing seasonal factors and the moving average process used to obtain the curve, which can change the values for previously reported months. Changes to the data are also due to revisions to the government employment data, which is used to calculate the Intuit Index.
While the Intuit Small Business Employment Index offers macroeconomic insight about the economy generally, it does not indicate or represent changes in Intuit’s business results for any period.
The Index data reflects monthly employment activity in small businesses, and is adjusted to account for changes in Intuit’s Online Payroll customer base. The percent change is measured monthly using the change in employment for existing Intuit Online Payroll customers from one month to the next. The set of customers changes each month so the measurement is the change, for each pair of months, for customers who are present in both the earlier and the later month.
Banks still failing
The largest number of bank failures in nearly 20 years has eliminated jobs, accelerated a drought in lending and left the industry’s survivors with more power to squeeze customers.
279 banks have collapsed since Sept. 25, 2008, when Washington Mutual Inc. became the biggest bank failure on record. That dwarfed the 1984 demise of Continental Illinois, which had only one-seventh of WaMu’s assets. The failures of the past two years shattered the pace of the prior six-year period, when only three dozen banks died.
Two more banks went down last Friday, and failures are expected to “persist for some time,” according to a report issued Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s. In the second quarter of this year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. increased its number of problem banks by 6% to 829.
Between failures and consolidation, the number of U.S. banks could fall to 5,000 over the next decade from the current 7,932, according to the top executive of investment-banking firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc.
The upside of failures is that they can represent a healthy cleansing of a sector that grew too fast, with bank assets more than doubling to $13.8 trillion in the decade that ended in 2008. Many banks that failed were opportunistic latecomers. Of the failed banks since February 2007, 75 were formed after 1999, according to SNL Financial.
Still, economists say, the contraction represents an enduring threat to capital, lending and the economy.
Setting Up a Home Office
Setting up a home office? Biz Television is here to help.
More and more people are trying to find ways to work from home.
- Set up a space that is your own. Make it your office, not your kitchen table.
- Make sure you password protect your computer. Who knows when a family member might make a settings change that takes hours to fix.
- Find an ergonomic way to store your cords. Tripping over a computer cord can damage you or your hardware.
- Anticipate your needs. Just because you are working from home does not mean you have all the supplies you’ll want to use. Keep a list handy so you can stay on top of your supplies. Plan out your next trip to the office supply store.
- Remove unhelpful distraction. Biz Television provides live programming during the market hours to help you stay informed and focused.
For more information on working out of the home, tune in to shows like MomsTown Live.
Private Sector trying to keep employment up
U.S. employment fell for a third straight month in August, but the drop was far less than expected and private hiring surprised on the upside, easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to prop up economic growth.
Nonfarm payrolls declined 54,000, the Labor Department said on Friday, helping to assuage fears of a double-dip recession. Financial markets had looked for a drop of 100,000 jobs.
However, the data will likely do little to take the political heat off President Barack Obama over his handling of the economy or improve the Democratic Party’s chances in November’s mid-term congressional elections.
“It is inconsistent with fears that a sharp slowdown in the economy is under way. This report, together with other recent data, will convince the Fed to refrain from launching a new asset purchase program at this month’s meeting,” said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital in New York.
The fall in payrolls last month was largely a result of 114,000 temporary census workers being laid off.
Wait, you mean those census jobs that everyone was so excited about were only temporary?
Private employment, considered a better gauge of labor market health, increased 67,000 after a revised 107,000 gain in July. Markets had expected a rise of only 41,000 in August.
In addition, the government revised payrolls for June and July to show 123,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported.
Oil dips as jobless claims soar
Oil dipped toward $75 per barrel on Thursday, paring earlier gains, after a surprise rise in U.S. unemployment claims to a nine-month high was balanced by an upgrading of Germany’s growth forecast by its central bank.
The U.S. jobless figures heightened concerns about the pace of recovery in the U.S., the world’s largest economy. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 500,000 in the week ended August 14, the highest since mid-November, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 476,000 from the previously reported 484,000 the prior week, which was revised up to 488,000 in Thursday’s report.
A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state level data. The data covered the survey week for the government’s closely watched employment report for August, scheduled for release early next month.
U.S. September crude was down 6 cents to $75.36 a barrel. ICE front-month Brent fell 23 cents to $76.24.
However, oil found some support from a rally in equity markets in Asia and Europe. European shares rose after Germany’s central bank upgraded its forecast for this year’s economic growth.
Analysts downplayed the effect on oil prices of deepening tensions between Iran and the United States. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, said on Wednesday that Iran would not talk with the U.S. in the current climate.
Jobless claims reach new heights
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment insurance unexpectedly rose to its highest level in close to six months, a fresh signal of a weak jobs market.
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment insurance unexpectedly rose to its highest level in close to six months, a fresh signal of a weak jobs market.
The data comes two days after the Federal Reserve downgraded its assessment of the economy’s health and said it would take steps to ensure its support for the fragile economic recovery does not wane.
So, how should we fix this? Not with any stimulus. Here’s what one politician thought:
“It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now … Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.”
No, not Ronald Reagan. This quote is from John F. Kennedy. You may remember him as a Democratic president from the 60′s. Here’s another gem of his:
“Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased – not a reduced – flow of revenues to the federal government.”
The stock market has responded to the jobless data, and not in a good way. Stocks have fallen, as the data indicates a weak labor market.
Flight attendant scores epic win for customer service
If you’ve ever been in the customer service field, you understand. A JetBlue flight attendant was allegedly in an altercation with a passenger, grabbed a couple of beers and slid off a plane through the escape chute.
Steven Slater apparently had an altercation with a passenger who retrieved a bag from the overhead bin while the plane was still taxiing. If you’ve ever been on a plane before, you know you’re not supposed to do this. If you’ve never been on a plane before, they tell you that you’re not supposed to do this.
Slater has been released on bail, but believes he will lose his job. In an era when Southwest Airlines continues to get accolades as one of the best companies to work for, is it surprising that an airline has a disgruntled employee?
After the altercation, Slater got on the PA and said, “To the passenger who just called me a motherf—–: f— you. I’ve been in this business 28 years, and I’ve had it.”
Did Slater overreact? Yes, but the fact remains that he had to deal with people who treated him poorly. Is it any surprise that he snapped?
Now, the only problem will be keeping people from repeating his performance across the country.
Dollar waves at 15-year low, but departs quickly
The dollar neared a 15-year low against the yen on Wednesday on fears the Federal Reserve could embrace more monetary easing to jolt a faltering recovery but it recouped its losses on better-than-expected U.S. jobs data.
Data showing U.S. private employers added more jobs than expected in July helped the dollar recover lost ground against the yen and also slowed recent gains in the euro, which hit a three-month high on Tuesday.
Private employers added 42,000 jobs in July, compared with a revised gain of 19,000 in June, the report by a payrolls processor ADP Employer Services showed on Wednesday.
The rise in hiring was slightly higher than an estimate from economists surveyed by Reuters for a gain of 40,000 private-sector jobs. The June ADP figure originally was reported as a gain of 13,000 jobs.
While above market expectations the gains still show the economy has not gained the job-creating momentum to pull the unemployment rate down from above nine percent.
Employment levels are considered key to a pickup in consumer spending and to boosting overall U.S. economic growth which has shown signs of weakness in recent months. Data last Friday showed U.S. economic growth slowed in the second quarter of this year.
Economists sometimes use the ADP report to narrow down their estimates for the U.S. Labor Department’s payrolls numbers due Friday, but it is not always accurate in predicting the outcome.
Good news from…the train industry?
For those objectivists in our audience who love Ayn Rand, but thought that railroad industry featured in Atlas Shrugged was out of touch with reality, you were wrong. The train industry is thriving.
Which is good news for the town of Elmira, NY.
A total of 575 jobs are coming to the small city, after Amtrak awarded an Elmira-based company a contract to build 130 new train cars. CAF USA, a subsidiary of a Spanish rail manufacturer, will build the single-level rail cars and hire hundreds for manufacturing and assembly work at its plant in Elmira. The first car is scheduled to be completed in October 2012.
The five-year contract, worth $298.1 million, is the first step in a fleet renewal plan. Amtrak said the new cars will replace some old fleet cars still in use — including some built in the 1940s and 1950s.
So, keep your eyes open for Rearden metal. It will probably be developed by Apple.
Unemployment benefits gone for near 1 million
On Thursday, the Senate failed for the third time to extend the deadline to file for a safety net that would ensure continued unemployment benefits for almost 1 million people.
The Senate trimmed the bill to add $33.3 billion to the deficit rather than $55.1 billion. The changes scaled back Medicaid funding for the states and reallocated stimulus and Defense Department spending. The bill pushed back the deadline for federal unemployment benefits until the end of November, renewed expired tax provisions, lengthened a small business lending program, and added to infrastructure developments.
The vote was 57-41. Democrats needed 60 votes to overcome Republican filibuster. The bill will be pulled.
