If you”™re looking for a job, small businesses may not provide the safety net they characteristically once did, post-recession.
Only 17 percent of small-business survey respondents plan to hire additional full-time employees within the next 12 months, according to the latest national Citibank poll.
However, in an over-sample of 200 New York metropolitan area respondents, some 28 percent said that access to affordable health plans would encourage them to hire as opposed to the 20 percent surveyed nationally.
Though the New York market was a “statistically small sample,” Citibank”™s head of Small Business Banking Raj Seshadri said “it does appear things are a little better here.”
About 67 percent of New York market small-business executives surveyed were more likely to hire employees with skills the company lacks, as opposed to 42 percent nationally.
When budgeting for TV or radio advertising, some 87 percent of New York market small-business executives reported an unwillingness to expand business using those methods.
“Media in New York has a much broader reach, but the reality is the cost is much higher as well,” Seshadri said. “Small-business owners are thinking creatively about other media and online tools that are available. More and more report that when they use it, it”™s much more effective.”
One of the major pillars of the survey was the overall sentiment of small-business owners. About 66 percent of respondents said the recession has “forever changed” how they run their business.
One portion of the survey examined how age played a role in business forecast findings.
Approximately 23 percent of respondents age 45 and older would not start their business again knowing the challenges they would face; only 9 percent of owners aged 18 to 44 agreed with that statement.
“The way we read it is many have survived better than they expected and have become much more productive in how they run their business,” Seshadri said.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses have created 60 to 80 percent of net new employment since the mid 1990s.
In 2008, there was a net loss of 3.1 million jobs.
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What would encourage small-business owners to hire additional employees?
Increase in business volume: 92%
Improved general business climate: 81%
If they received a permanent payroll tax deduction: 64%
If state, local sales or property taxes were reduced: 54%
Source: Citibank
