The number of pink slips small businesses are handing out are on the decline, but they’re still not putting out the “help wanted” signs, said an article on CNN.com.

Small businesses hit hard by the recession have had to trim their budgets, which includes whittling down staff. Since early 2008, small companies have eliminated about 2.6 million jobs, according to payroll company ADP.

ADP said businesses with fewer than 50 employees cut 75,000 workers in October, but that number is the smallest number of job cuts in a single month since July 2008, said CNN.com.

In a recent telephone survey conducted by management consulting firm George S. May International, 74 percent of the small business owners polled said they didn’t plan any new hiring in the next 90 days.

Small business owner Jennifer Hason, who runs a Pennsylvania bakery, has filled her labor gap by working with participants of Job Corps, which provides job training skills to 16 to 24 year olds from economically distressed areas.

Job Corps students work on location for six weeks unpaid with the possibility of getting hired if a position becomes available. Hason has hired two Job Corps students as full-time employees.

“It is my absolute dream,” Hason told CNN. “I get to teach and I get to have assistance — essentially financial assistance — from this program. It is unbelievable.”

Tags: Job Corps, job training skills, Small business owner, small business owners, Small businesses

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