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Real-Time Economic Data

Gusto Small Business Jobs Number

Net hiring at small businesses — hires minus terminations — from a stratified random sample of US businesses with 1–49 employees.

Oct 2026
+37,997
+11,042 vs. prior month
Adjustment

Net hiring at small businesses

Seasonally adjusted
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Jan 2019 – Oct 2026
Net hires = hires minus terminations. Seasonally adjusted with the U.S. Census Bureau’s X-13ARIMA-SEATS methodology.

Breakdown

Sector · Oct 2026 · net hires in the month
Break down by
Sector breakdown for net hiring at small businesses, Oct 2026.
SectorNet hires in the month
Health Care+13,139
Prof. & Technical+5,546
Construction+3,842
Other Services+2,557
Admin & Support+2,524
Wholesale+2,007
Finance & Ins.+1,940
Manufacturing+1,891
Retail+1,310
Arts & Rec.+1,026
Transport & Whse+937
Information+539
Utilities+514
Real Estate+348
Agriculture+297
Education+222
Mining & Oil−87
Accom. & Food−268
Mgmt of Cos.−284

By region

US Census regions · Oct 2026 · seasonally adjusted
  • South+13,333
  • Midwest+9,435
  • Northeast+8,224
  • West+7,005

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Reference

Methodology

How the Gusto Small Business Jobs Number is measured.

The Gusto Small Business Jobs Report tracks anonymized payroll data from a stratified random sample of small businesses across the United States with 1–49 employees, based on the 500,000+ companies on Gusto. All figures in this report are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise noted.

Key metrics

HiresNew employees starting work.
TerminationsEmployees leaving for any reason.
Net hiresThe difference between hires and terminations, showing whether small businesses are creating or losing jobs overall.

Seasonal adjustment

All data are seasonally adjusted using the U.S. Census Bureau’s X-13ARIMA-SEATS methodology to account for predictable fluctuations throughout the year, making it easier to identify meaningful trends in small business employment.

Sample selection and weighting

To ensure the findings represent small businesses across the United States, Gusto uses a two-stage weighting process.

First, we randomly select a representative sample of companies that match the national distribution of small businesses by industry, company size, and geographic region, using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics “Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages” data as a benchmark. Each January, we choose a random sample of companies to include for the year:

Annual sample sizes, 2019–2025
YearCompanies
201925,000
202025,000
202150,000
202250,000
2023100,000
2024100,000
2025100,000

Second, we adjust the sample to reflect the national distribution of company ages based on data from the Census Bureau’s “Business Dynamics Statistics.”