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79,000 Small Biz Layoffs. In November.
By Bizbox
If you've been reading the news, you've probably noted the announcement that 250,000 jobs were eliminated in the U.S. private sector in November alone (although, since in the same report the payroll company ADP revised its prior October number upwards 20,000, that quarter-million may be a lowball estimate). Your next question may have been: how many of these were small business jobs? Apparently, 79,000. Apparently, that's the most jobs small businesses have lost in a single month in seven years.
So times are bad, if you're small business owner, and if you're a small business employee. Or a prospective small business employee--another report found that small business hiring was about an inch above flat in November, while year-over-year salaries at small businesses have declined 2.6%.
We'd only remind you that, though cutbacks and layoffs may very well be necessary, there is inherent value--from a business perspective--to actually terminating as few employees as possible. Layoffs are absolute morale killers on those who are remaining. You might think layoffs have the opposite effect, that is, of making those whom you still employ work that much harder out of fear. But fear is not a lasting motivation; and if fear rather than sadness is your employees' prime reaction to several layoffs, you probably have a workplace with poor morale to begin with.
Because of this--and, yes, because it's also the nice and right thing to do--it is worthwhile to take pains to cut costs without firing people. Here's how.
That said, for the average small business payroll represents the vast majority of costs. November's poor numbers probably won't be the last.
Comments (0)December 4, 2008 11:06 AM
