Small Business New Hires Increased More than 10% Between 2019 and 2021
SBA’s Office of Advocacy focused on the influx of hiring that businesses saw between 2019 and 2021 in their recent research, but they also acknowledged the labor shortages small and large businesses alike faced during this period.
From the third quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2021, businesses across the country saw an increase in new hires, and most areas had an increase of more than 10%. The SBA Office of Advocacy also found that the smallest firms (fewer than 20 employees) outpaced other small business sizes when it came to hiring.
Almost a third of all hires in the third quarter of 2021 were by small businesses in the service sector. These hires were more concentrated in Leisure & Hospitality and Health & Social Services. In the goods production industries, small businesses hired more employees for construction.
Small businesses with less than 20 employees tended to hire the most employees from non-employed status, and they tended to hire fewer people who were already employed. Regardless of the size of the business, the Leisure & Hospitality (55.8% of new hires) and Trade (45.1% of new hires) industries hired the largest share of employees from the pool of non-employed individuals.