By Andrew Miller
According to the Gusto Small Business Jobs Report, small businesses added an estimated 29,500 jobs in August.
That makes seven straight months of growth, going back to a dip in January.
However, August’s gain came in below the 12-month average, the weakest month of the streak. Nich Tremper, Senior Economist at Gusto, believes “August looks like a slow down, not a pullback.”
That’s because new hire pay and wages have continued to grow since August 2025. The hiring streak continues despite small businesses being more selective about who they bring on board.
Every region and company size added jobs last month, though the growth came from fewer sectors than before.
The gains were concentrated in healthcare and social assistance, which added 16,300 net hires on its own. That’s over half of last month’s total net jobs. Second was construction, with 4,200 net hires.
After that the numbers thin out fast.
Mining, utilities, and transportation all slipped from adding workers to cutting them, joining agriculture, which had already been shedding jobs. Hospitality led the losses.
So the hiring streak is intact, but it’s weaker than spring’s growth. In April, small businesses added nearly 55,000 jobs. August came in at barely half that.
Pay tells a different story.
Even as hiring cooled, wages kept climbing. The average hourly wage across small business workers reached $37.31 in August, up 3.9% from a year earlier. Starting pay for new hires rose 3.2%, to about $25.78 an hour.
Fewer businesses are adding workers. The ones that are, are paying more.
P.S. Bringing on workers costs more than it did a year ago. If payroll is outpacing what’s coming in, Signet can help you bridge it. Let’s talk about your funding.