by Calculated Risk on 9/03/2010 08:15:00 PM

From NFIB: Small Businesses Still Not Hiring

William C. Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business [said] “In August, most firms did not change employment, but for those that did, 11 percent (up one point from July) increased average employment by 2.3 employees, but 13 percent (down two points) reduced their workforces by an average of 3.5 workers. Job creation still has not crossed the 0 line in the small business sector.
...
“Over the next three months, 13 percent plan to reduce employment (up three points), and 8 percent plan to create new jobs (down one point), yielding a seasonally adjusted net 1 percent of owners planning to create new jobs, a point worse than July, but at least it’s positive.

“Overall, the job creation picture is still bleak. Weak sales and uncertainty about the future continue to hold back any commitments to growth, hiring or capital spending."

Note: A large percentage of small businesses are in real estate related fields and that will keep hiring down for some time. The August survey will be released on Sept 14th, but once again the key problem is "weak sales".

Earlier employment posts today (with many graphs):

August Employment Report: 60K Jobs ex-Census, 9.6% Unemployment Rate

Employment-Population Ratio, Part Time Workers, Unemployed over 26 Weeks

Employment Diffusion Indices