by Calculated Risk on 12/02/2011 03:25:00 PM

From NFIB on small business hiring: November Brings First Positive Growth in Months

Chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) William C. Dunkelberg, issued the following statement on the November job numbers, based on NFIB’s monthly economic survey that will be released on Tuesday, December 13, 2011. ...

“The jobs report this month bears the first good news in a while. While the net change in employment per firm wasn’t much different from zero, it had a positive sign in front of it for the first time in nearly half a year. On average, owners reported increasing employment an average of 0.12 workers per firm. ...

“Forty-seven (47) percent of small business owners hired or tried to hire in the last three months and 35 percent of them reported few or no qualified applicants for positions, both figures up 4 points from October.

“The percent of owners cutting jobs has returned to ‘normal’ levels. ... And the percent of owners adding employees (creating jobs) continued to trend up. Reports of new job creation should pick up a bit in the coming months.

“Sixteen percent (seasonally adjusted) reported hard to fill job openings up 2 points and the highest reading in 38 months. Over the next three months, 11 percent plan to increase employment (up 2 points), and 11 percent plan to reduce their workforce (down 1 point), yielding a seasonally adjusted net 7 percent of owners planning to create new jobs, a 4 point improvement and the strongest reading in 38 months.

Note: Small businesses have a larger percentage of real estate and retail related companies than the overall economy.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the net hiring plans for the next three months. Hiring plans were still fairly low in November, but the trend is up - and this is the strongest reading in 38 months.

This fits with data from ADP that also shows a pickup in small business hiring (ht Brian).

Here are the earlier employment posts:
• November Employment Report: 120,000 Jobs, 8.6% Unemployment Rate
• Employment Summary, Part Time Workers, and Unemployed over 26 Weeks
• Seasonal Retail Hiring, Duration of Unemployment, Unemployment by Education and Diffusion Indexes
• NEW Employment graph gallery (fast, no scripting)