Survey: Small business hiring mixed

Of small businesses that have employees other than the owner, roughly half hired new workers during 2010, according to a recent survey.

The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey also found a split in whether those small businesses were hiring as many employees as they needed and a variety of reasons influencing why businesses decided not to hire workers. 

Conducted in November, the poll showed that 48 percent of small businesses that hired brought on the number of employees they needed, with another 9 percent hiring more than was immediately necessary. 

On the flip side, 42 percent of the hiring businesses took on fewer workers than desired. Those businesses cited worries about cash flow and a lack of qualified candidates as among the reasons they decided to not hire as much.

Those figures, the survey said, illustrated that stagnant job growth in the small business sector is driven in large part by companies hiring less than they want to. But, it added, “this is something that can turn around quickly” with continued economic growth.

The most recent employment numbers from the Labor Department, released Friday, showed that the unemployment rate dropped in January (to 9 percent), but also that fewer jobs were added to the economy than expected (36,000).