Economix Blog: Small Businesses Plan to Increase Hiring

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Some good news in the job market: Small businesses plan to increase hiring, according to the latest report from the National Federation of Independent Business.

The organization — an industry group for small and medium-size businesses — conducts a survey each month on subjects like optimism, credit conditions and jobs. November’s survey showed that the net share of companies that were planning to hire workers was at its highest in 38 months. The share is well below where it has been in previous recoveries, but is an improvement nonetheless.

Source: National Federation of Independent Business, via Haver Analytics

What’s more, the net percentage of companies that say they have already increased their employment in the last three months — that is, the percent saying they increased their staff minus the percent saying they decreased it — was positive for the first time in nearly four years.

Source: National Federation of Independent Business, via Haver Analytics

For a while, small businesses seemed to be lagging big companies. Perhaps even the country’s smaller employers are finally starting to enjoy the feeble recovery.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=22e9c6b0a227ff1db446ccfbd8fd5d03