Alabama is one of the fastest growing states for small business hiring, according to a new study by Intuit.
The state was a leader in August for the Intuit Small Business Employment Index, which measures employment for firms with fewer than 20 employees.
Overall, the number of jobs with small businesses dropped about 5,000 across the country. But Alabama was one of only a handful of states that saw its small business employment increase over the last month. Alabama’s SBEI was measured at 95.8, and a review of the entire year shows that the state has shown an increase each month of 2015.
Susan Woodward, the economist who works with Intuit to produce the SBEI, said in Alabama, small business employment grew by 0.3 percent, which would be 3.7 percent at an annual rate.
“Much faster than national small business employment over the past year (which was 0.8 percent for the year), and faster than national employment overall – for big business and small, just over 2 percent for the past year,” Woodward said. “Alabama small business employment growth has been in the top five nationally for at least 3 months in a row.”
While the uptick in small business hiring is a positive for the state, Alabama’s unemployment rate has been on the rise in recent months and remains above the national average.
September 1, 2015
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