The CEO of Rochester-based Paychex says that the new nationwide numbers on employment reflect what his company is seeing among the small businesses they serve. Numbers released by the federal government on Friday show that employers added 255,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate in July remained at 4.9 percent.
Paychex also puts out a monthly survey on employment, and CEO Marty Mucci says that although their July index shows that job growth among small businesses moderated somewhat in July, the trend over the last several months has been a positive one.
“Year-to-date, the job growth rate for small businesses is up .3 percent so it’s stronger than pre-recession levels. It is regional though, we’re still seeing the southeast region the strongest and sustainable and actually the northeast is recovering from lows last year.”
The federal government says wage growth picked up also, with average wages going up 2.6 percent. Mucci says the Paychex survey shows an increase of 3.7 percent among small businesses.
Mucci says the reason for the increase is likely due to a variety of factors.
“I think that’s impacted by a few things, one is, the unemployment rate being low, it’s harder to get people; (also), minimum wage increases are going up around the country; states, cities, and that’s impacting small business more, because they’re leisure and hospitality (jobs), they’re other services, discretionary services, that kind of job," he told WXXI News.
Mucci says overall, when you take the month-to-month "choppiness" out of the employment numbers, the Paychex survey shows a longer term trend of slow, steady job growth.
