Half of business owners plan to hire this year

6/9/2011

While recent reports from the Department of Labor indicated that unemployment had increased and hiring was slowing, many small businesses are still optimistic that they will create jobs before the end of the year, a new report from business community Manta indicates.

More than half of small businesses (57 percent) plan to hire more employees this year. However, there are several obstacles preventing them from creating all the jobs they need - for example, many struggle to offer competitive compensation, while others have found that highly qualified individuals often don't want to work for small companies.

"The best news revealed in our survey is that small business owners are hiring," said Pamela Springer, president and CEO of Manta. "Managing a staff has always been challenging for SMBs, but it's much more difficult in today's 'do more with less' economy."

Because small businesses account for the majority of new jobs created, the federal government is putting a greater emphasis on improving small business lending.