U.S. small businesses were able to collectively hire 45,000 new employees last February. Figures from Intuit, a marketing analyst firm, state that companies were able to continue a period of growth that began January of 2012.
Elena Fine, Associate Director for the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, said that the growth could be attributed to an increase in new businesses being formed.
The current state of the economy allows for startup projects to cost less than they normally would, prompting innovation and development, especially for mobile application and consumer internet companies. Since less money would have to be invested into a new project, companies are more willing to experiment and launch new projects.
“A software company that may have needed $5M to start up may now only need $250K to design a minimally viable product and conduct a beta test.” said Fine.
Speculation exists over whether or not this growth period will have a lasting effect on the economy. Job growth actually slowed down in February, dropping 10,000 jobs. According to Intuit, some of these new jobs are low-end hourly wage positions. While these positions do not pay much, they require little qualification and investment from the employer. Other analysts from BizEngine state that some of the growth could be attributed to the large purchase of Valentine’s Day gifts.