Small Business Checkpoint
February 2023
Key takeaways
- We offer a timelier view on hiring demand from small businesses given that public data on job openings is only available on a two-month lag. Aggregated small business (SB) client payments to hiring firms, based on Bank of America internal data, suggest that hiring demand in January remained robust by pre-Covid standards but was cooling from a year ago.
- Despite growing macroeconomic headwinds, small businesses continue to look for workers. This is partly due to lingering labor shortages, though we think the gap between demand and supply for workers should continue to narrow. In addition, despite slowing revenues, small businesses continue to make profits.
- In January, small business payments to SB-focused hiring firms were 72% higher than in January 2020 but 25% lower than the same period in 2022. Similarly, the number of transactions for these payments is over 80% higher than the same time in 2020 but 17% lower than a year ago.
Read our full analysis for a more in-depth look at these trends.
