Hiring among small businesses headquartered in the Southern U.S. is up 1.3 percent over the year -- the only region tracked by SurePayroll to see an increase,
according to the group's August Small Business Scorecard.
Small business hiring is down in most parts of the country -- but not in the Southern U.S., according to SurePayroll. (Credit: SurePayroll)
Nationwide, small business hiring is down 1.5 percent from August 2011, SurePayroll says. Conditions are especially difficult in the Western U.S., where hiring is down 5.1 percent.
A subsidiary of Rochester, N.Y.-based Paychex, SurePayroll provides payroll services to small businesses across the country. CEO Michael Alter says the data coming from businesses in the south speaks for itself.
"The south is faring better than the rest of the country," Alter says definitively. Overall, however, the country's small business environment is seeing "continuing deterioration" due to a lack of demand.
To that end, only 60 percent of businesses are optimistic about the economic environment, SurePayroll says -- down from 64 percent in May. Of the business owners his organization has polled, Alter says roughly 75 percent mention the upcoming election as a source of concern for the near future. Those same business owners support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama by a ratio of roughly two-to-one, Alter says.