New data from payroll companies suggests that small businesses are slowly beginning to add employees, even as the most recent Labor Department report shows the unemployment rate held steady at just under 10 percent. Some economists believe these numbers indicate the recession is bottoming out.

Based on data gathered from Intuit’s online payroll service, companies with less than 20 employees have added jobs since June 2009, said Business Week Additionally, data from SurePayroll shows the average paycheck for workers at businesses with fewer than 100 employees has stabilized, said Business Week.

President Obama has put forth a number of measures intended to get people back to work, including tax incentives for businesses that hire new employees and pushing banks to free up more credit for small businesses.

John Bishop, a labor economist at Cornell University, told Business Week that temporary incentives like tax credits could create more than 2 million jobs in a year.
“It potentially has a huge effect, and small business would be the primary beneficiary of that,” Bishop told Business Week.

Omaha, Neb., home to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway company, has weathered the recession better than any other city in the nation, according to Forbes magazine.

So what’s this Midwestern city’s winning formula? Forbes said Omaha had a 1.3 percent gross metropolitan product growth rate in the last year, a low foreclosure rate and a 5 percent unemployment rate – half of the national rate of 10 percent.

Omaha also has a strong agricultural sector and growing biofuels industry, and it is home to 30 insurance companies and regional banks like Mutual of Omaha.

Forbes ranked the rate of economic recovery of the 100 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas based on five categories: unemployment rate, GMP (a measure of the size of a city’s economy), foreclosures, home prices and sales rates. Overall, cities that are on the road to recovery have diversified industry and a relatively stable housing base.

Rounding out the top 10 are San Antonio, Texas; Austin, Texas; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Rochester, N.Y.; Houston, Texas; and Raleigh, N.C.

Click here to see the full list.

The U.S. unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent in October — a 26-year high, according to recent figures from the Labor Department.

The country shed 190,000 jobs in September, even as other economic indicators have pointed to a recovery from the recession. President Barack Obama on Friday signed a bill that would extend unemployment benefits up to an additional 20 weeks and extend the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

Republican critics of the Obama administration are pointing to the double-digit unemployment rate as proof that the $787 billion stimulus package is failing; meanwhile, labor unions and some Democrats are calling for more spending to create jobs, according to the New York Times.

The highest level of unemployment came at the end of 1982, when it hit 10.8 percent, reported the Times.

A Commerce Department report released Thursday that showed growth in the gross domestic product sent the stock market soaring, with the Dow Jones posting a nearly 200 point gain.

At the end of trading on Friday, however, that gain was erased by another Commerce Depart report that said consumer spending dropped in September by the largest amount in nine months, according to the the New York Times.

The Dow Jones dropped nearly 250 points, or 2.5 percent.

The U.S. economy expanded by 3.5 percent between July and September, and household purchases rose 3.4 percent, according to the Thursday Commerce Department figures.

Much of the growth was attributable to government incentives such as the “cash-for-clunkers” program which spurred consumer spending on automobiles and an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

Purchases of durable goods, including autos, jumped 22 percent, and residential construction rose 23 percent in the last quarter, reported Bloomberg News.

That trend was reversed when the cash-for-clunkers program ended in September, said the New York Times.

Unemployment figures also remain dismal, leading President Obama to say the economy has “a long way to go” before it makes a full recovery.

The jobless rate reached a 26-year high of 9.8 percent in September, up from 7.6 percent when Obama took office in January, Bloomberg reported. Many economists predict the unemployment rate will top 10 percent in 2010.

Many small business owners and trade groups that typically oppose minimum wage hikes were relatively quiet when the most recent increase took effect July 24, raising the national minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from $6.65 an hour.

Small businesses complain that mandatory wage hikes hurt their bottom lines, forcing them to raise prices or impose cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. But the National Federation of Independent Business said that most businesses pay more than minimum wage to attract the best workers, and 21 states already have minimum wage requirements above the federal level, according to MSNBC.com.

While economists believe the wage hike will have little effect on the economy overall, teens and young adults, as well as workers in rural or poor areas, will likely suffer the most when employers make hiring decisions, said MSNBC.com.

Phyllis Knueven, who owns a grocery store in Illinois that employs several teens, told MSNBC.com she could hire more experienced and flexible adult workers for $8 an hour.

Teens and young adults have already been hit hard by the recession; the June unemployment rate was 24 percent for 16- to 19-year-olds and 15.2 percent for 20- to 24-year-olds.

With more Mexican workers in the United States unable to find jobs, their families back in Mexico are struggling to survive. Millions of Mexicans rely on the money sent home by relatives working in the U.S.

The Bank of Mexico reported that money transfers from the U.S. to Mexico dropped 20 percent in May, to $1.9 billion, compared to last year, according to an article in USA Today.

An estimated 12 million Mexicans work illegally in the U.S. and have suffered more unemployment than the population at large, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Jack Martin, an immigration-control advocate, told USA Today that less money going to Mexico might mean more money staying in the U.S. to stimulate the economy.

In Mexico, small, rural towns known as pueblos fantasmas, or “ghost towns” because so many men have left to work in the U.S., have been hit especially hard, said USA Today.

For the mainly women, children and elderly left behind in those small towns, the suffering is very real.

“Thank God, we haven’t had anyone die of hunger yet,” Jesus Tello, 63, a farmer in the isolated town of Pacula, told USA Today. “But things are getting harder and harder. People are living on beans.”

A rise in home sales is fueling optimism that the country is clawing its way back from the recession.

Sales of previously owned homes rose 2.9 percent in April, bringing annual sales to 4.68 million, a report from the National Association of Realtors said.

But the good news was tempered by a separate report that said that as mortgage costs rose, applications for home loans fell to their lowest level since early March, according to LiveMint.com.

The number of unsold homes also rose 8.8 percent, but analysts chalked up the rise in inventory to the beginning of the busy spring buying season, said LiveMint.com.

Economists see the general economic outlook brightening with job losses and unemployment claims dropping and consumer confidence on the rise.

When it comes to boosting budding entrepreneurs, look no further than the Tar Heel State.
According to a Feb. 13 report by bizjournals, North Carolina is home to two markets with the nation’s top ranking for “small-business vitality.” And by top, they mean the very top — Raleigh is No. 1 in the national rankings and Charlotte is No. 2. Bizjournals said it used a six-part formula to analyze the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, searching for the places that are most conducive to the creation and development of small businesses.

Here’s why North Carolina is a leader even in tough economic times, according to bizjournals:

• Population: Raleigh and Charlotte together gained 427,000 new residents between 2002 and 2007. Raleigh grew by 21.2% in that five-year period, Charlotte by 17.4%. Both dwarfed the national growth rate of 4.8%.
• Employment: The two regions are cushioned from the recession by outstanding job growth during the 2003-08 span
• 23.0% in Raleigh, 15.4% in Charlotte. The U.S. gain was 5.8%.
• Small-business growth: The number of small businesses grew dramatically in both markets from 2005 to 2006, the latest period covered by official statistics. Raleigh posted a 4.6% rise, Charlotte 4.0%. The national increase was 1.3%.
• Small-business concentration: The typical U.S. market has 24.57 small businesses for every 1,000 residents. Raleigh was listed at 27.58 per 1,000, Charlotte at 27.07. Third in the “Top Five” ranking was Seattle, followed by Austin and Boise, Idaho. Detroit was last, battered by the decline of the automotive industry and high unemployment.

To see a slideshow on the Top Ten click here.

President Barack Obama continues to sound the alarm that failure to act on an economic recovery package could lead to an entrenched and painful recession.

In an editorial in the Feb. 5 edition of The Washington Post that was picked up by media outlets throughout the country, the president said each day that the nation waits on fixing the economy, more jobs, savings and homes are lost.

“By now, it’s clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression. Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone; millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished. People everywhere are worried about what tomorrow will bring,” the president wrote. “What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives — action that’s swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis.”

Obama cited the country’s overwhelming vote for change last November and the time to act was now.

“…Each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse. That’s why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress.”

A divided Congress quickly became mired in debate over the roughly $800 billion package with Republicans attacking what they called its frivolous spending and lack of attention to tax cuts, arguments rejected by majority Democrats.

Obama hit the road on Feb. 9 in support of the bill, taking his pitch directly to the job-scarce Midwest.