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Small businesses looking up, majority planning to hire, survey says

September 22, 2014

Small businesses expect to have a profitable second half of the year, according to the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard survey for September. The survey found 81 percent of small business owners expect to be profitable in the second half of the year, up from 77 percent in June. Optimism among small business owners rose to 73 percent, its second highest point in 2014; it reached 75 percent in May.

Fifty percent said they would make investments in their business in the fourth quarter, up from 44 percent at this time last year. Of those planning to make new investment, 52 percent said they would do so by adding new staff.

However, hiring edged down 0.1 percent from August and 0.7 percent year over year.

“The businesses that we work with are your mom and pop shops, your really tight-knit operations with just two or three employees, and a really high number of them have worked their way into profitability,” said SurePayroll General Manager Andy Roe on the hiring increase. “It’s tremendous and the excitement is really back in the air for small businesses heading into the year-end stretch. We'll look to see more investment from business owners in staff, marketing and technology, as well as new equipment and even office space for some.”

SurePayroll’s Scorecard compiles data from more than 40,000 small businesses and exclusively reflects the trends affecting businesses with one to 10 employees. The average business reflected has six employees. SurePayroll Inc. provides online payroll services to small businesses. It is a subsidiary of Paychex Inc. (NASD: PAYX).