Jobs outlook still bleak for small businesses

As the economy languishes, uncertainty for entrepreneurs and small business owners lingers. The jobs picture for small businesses is not improving.

|
LM Otero/AP/File
Job seekers line up to speak to a recruiter during a job fair in Irving, Texas in this July 2012 file photo. For small business, the jobs picture continues to show weak improvement.

The economy continues to languish while the politicians blame each other and business owners continue to wait for signs that things are really going to improve.

The big word for many entrepreneurs is uncertainty.  It is not only uncertainty about when a true recovery will begin, but also uncertainty about things such as tax rates, regulation, and global economic instability.

While the Intuit Small Business Index shows continued weak improvement, other surveys show business owners to be more cautious.

The latest report from the NFIB is more of the same.

“July looked a lot like June in terms of job growth—namely, it was negative”. said chief economist for the NFIB William C. Dunkelberg. “On balance, July looks like a repeat of June, few jobs and no change in the unemployment rate. So far, it has turned out to be a cruel summer of dashed hopes for meaningful job creation.”

SurePayroll’s Small Business Scorecard shows that month-over-month, hiring remains flat and the average paycheck is down.

“Small business owners are optimistic by nature and they know that if you have a good idea you can take advantage of the lower costs in this economy and be successful,” said SurePayroll CEO and President Michael Alter. “Still, we need more incentives for investors to back startups and less tax burdens on small businesses.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Jobs outlook still bleak for small businesses
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Entrepreneurial-Mind/2012/0803/Jobs-outlook-still-bleak-for-small-businesses
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe