← Real-time economic data
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.

Aug 2026
+29,473
−12,944 vs. prior month
Adjustment

Net hiring at small businesses

Seasonally adjusted
Loading data…
Time frame — drag the handles, or focus the timeline below and use the arrow keys
Jan 2019 – Aug 2026
Net hires = hires minus terminations. Seasonally adjusted with the U.S. Census Bureau’s X-13ARIMA-SEATS methodology.

Breakdown

Sector · Aug 2026 · net hires in the month
Break down by
Sector breakdown for net hiring at small businesses, Aug 2026.
SectorNet hires in the month
Health Care+16,254
Construction+4,175
Admin & Support+2,137
Other Services+1,875
Wholesale+1,712
Manufacturing+1,624
Prof. & Technical+1,578
Finance & Ins.+1,018
Real Estate+629
Arts & Rec.+555
Information+415
Retail+281
Education+124
Mgmt of Cos.−272
Utilities−342
Agriculture−395
Mining & Oil−416
Transport & Whse−452
Accom. & Food−1,027

By region

US Census regions · Aug 2026 · seasonally adjusted
  • South+14,194
  • West+6,626
  • Midwest+4,464
  • Northeast+4,189

Explore more

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.”