MNI BRIEF: US Small Business Job Growth Highest Since 2013

Small business payrolls in March grew at the quickest pace since the start of the pandemic, U.S. payroll provider Paychex said Tuesday, underlining optimistic soundings from central bankers in their latest comments to MNI. Job growth was seen in all four major geographic regions and 16 of the 20 metro areas analyzed, according to the group's survey, led mostly by employment growth in construction, though leisure and hospitality payrolls saw the greatest improvement among sectors, with monthly job growth up 1% over February.

The company's small business employment index, produced jointly with IHS Markit, rose 0.3% to 94.25 in March, the largest one-month change since 2013. That represents data collected from roughly 350,000 small businesses across the country.

Hourly earnings growth overall was up an annualized 3.58%, while one-month weekly earnings growth rose above 5%, driven largely by recent minimum wage increases and gains weekly hours worked.