SurePayroll Inc., a leader in online payroll to small businesses nationwide, recently announced results for the August 2013 SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard indicating that nearly one in five small business owners are more likely to hire an independent contractor today than a full-time employee.  While 40 percent still would prefer a full-time employee, 38 percent are not looking to hire at all.

“It’s a fairly dramatic change in the small business mindset we’re seeing,” said SurePayroll CEO and President Michael Alter. “Ten years ago, if you had told me almost one in five small business owners were more likely to hire a contractor than a full-time employee, I would have been shocked. However, now it’s become much more common.”

Of those more likely to hire independent contractors, 75 percent said it was because they simply don’t need a full-time person to fulfill specialized roles in areas such as marketing, information technology or administrative work. Thirty-six percent also said hiring independent contractors reduces the tax and benefits costs.

Year over year, nationwide hiring is down 1.8 percent and paychecks are up 0.3 percent, indicating slightly higher pay or more hours for existing workers. Year over year, the South is the only region where hiring is up at 1.2 percent and paychecks there are up 1.0 percent. The West shows a hiring decline of 3.0 percent, with paychecks down 0.6 percent. Hiring in the Midwest is down 3.2 percent and paychecks are positive, up 3.0 percent. In the Northeast, hiring is down 4.1 percent and paychecks are down 1.9 percent.

As the first economic indicator created by a payroll company, the SurePayroll Scorecard has provided a monthly look at national hiring and paycheck trends since September 2004. SurePayroll’s Scorecard compiles data from small businesses nationwide, and exclusively reflects the trends affecting the nation’s “micro businesses” — those with an average of eight employees.

The full SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard infographic includes data for the top 35 MSAs. The August 2013 Scorecard is available now on the SurePayroll blog.

SurePayroll provides a number of online payroll services to small businesses.  PayStream will be exploring payroll service providers like SurePayroll in the upcoming Q4 2013 Outsourced Payroll Report.  Stay tuned for this upcoming report. In the meantime, to learn more about Outsourced Payroll Services download a complimentary copy of PayStream’s new white paper titled Outsourced Payroll Services: Why it Pays to Outsource Payroll.