While the rest of the nation seemed to slow, California small businesses increased their hiring and bumped up the average paycheck in October, reports SurePayroll, the online payroll service for small businesses.
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Year to date, California small businesses have increased their number of employees 6.0 percent, compared to 3.6 percent nationwide. Their average paycheck is 6.2 percent higher, compared to 3.7 percent nationwide.

Only a handful of states - Utah, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey and North Carolina - have had a higher pace of adding workers. And only Nevada has increased the average paycheck at a higher rate.


“There does, however, appear to be a little bit of a slowdown in hiring,” says SurePayroll President Michael Alter. “Increases in hiring growth the last two months have been lower than any month-over-month percentage increases for prior months this year.”
More than three fourths of survey respondents said they are neither hiring nor cutting their work forces.

“This is something we’ve seen before,” Alter says. “In the small-business world, there are many businesses that are doing well, but unfortunately, the vast majority of small businesses are not making a big contribution to economic growth by hiring new employees.”

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