text: Employment in Small Business Sector Sees Slight Bump
  Intuit Inc.'s 2012 Small Business Employment and Revenue Report measured a 0.12 percent employment growth for small businesses in 2012. December alone saw an increase of 0.09 percent over the year with the addition of 24,000 jobs. However, small-business revenue actually fell by 1.2 percent between January and November 2012 and by 0.3 percent in November.
  "Small-business employment is still growing, albeit very slowly," says Susan Woodward, the economist who partnered with Intuit to create the reports. "2012 was a year of ups and downs, resulting in a final tally of 19.9 million small-business jobs. However, the level of small-business employment has yet to reach its pre-recession level of 21.2 million jobs in March 2007."
  The report showed an average monthly compensation increase of 0.5 percent to $13 and average monthly hours worked rose 0.08 percent, or five minutes. Small-business hourly employees worked, on average, 107.4 hours during the month, up from 107.3 hours in November. This resulted in an average workweek of 24.8 hours.
  Employees of small businesses experienced an increase in average monthly pay to $2,702, up 0.5 percent from November. This rate is equivalent to $32,400 per year for what is considered part-time work for many employees. Small business revenue dropped by 0.3 percent in November with the professional services and retail industries seeing the largest declines at 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.
  "This is the ninth-consecutive month of revenue decline, but revenues are declining at a slower rate than they were earlier in the year," Woodward says. "The real estate industry is performing the strongest, increasing 4.4 percent from a year ago and seeing the smallest decline among all industries tracked this November."