SurePayroll Announces Top Ten States for Small Businesses in 2007

February 21, 2007; 02:02 AM

SurePayroll released its annual "SurePayroll Top Ten States for Small Businesses" list today, identifying the states in which small businesses have the best potential to do well in 2007.

Utah, Maryland and Nevada ranked highest in the SurePayroll Top Ten study, which is based on SurePayroll's monthly online Small Business Scorecard.

"These states were able to grow their small business economies in 2006 when economic growth was fairly sluggish," said SurePayroll President Michael Alter. "We believe they will continue to be strong states for small businesses throughout 2007."

The SurePayroll Top Ten

According to SurePayroll, the 10 states that will be best for small businesses in 2007, ranked by likely performance, are:

1. Utah
2. Maryland
3. Nevada
4. Colorado
5. Arizona
6. New Jersey
7. Indiana
8. California
9. Texas
10.North Carolina

SurePayroll awarded these states its SurePayroll Top Ten designation because they have had strong growth in the past. For example, in the last 12 months small businesses in Utah, Maryland and Nevada led the nation by growing 11.6, 7.0 and 5.4 percent, respectively.

The Small Business Employee's Perspective:

The SurePayroll Top Ten is based on employee growth. The underlying presumption is that growth in size suggests that a small business is doing well.

Of the SurePayroll Top Ten -- those states SurePayroll identifies as fast-growth states for small businesses in 2007 -- nine states (Utah, Maryland, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Indiana, California and Texas) had both growth in headcount and growth in average salaries in 2006. North Carolina, in contrast, witnessed a decline in average small business payrolls, with salaries dropping by 0.9 percent on average.

The ability to grow employee headcount in an environment where labor costs are rising also shows strength in these Top Ten states' small business economies.

At the same time, small business employees in these growth states can also view these economic results positively -- jobs are available to them and salaries are rising. While employees in other states did experience salary growth in 2006, the job growth in most states was flat or declining in 2006.

About the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard:
SurePayroll, the nation's fifth largest payroll provider and largest online payroll provider, aggregates data for more than 15,000 customers on a monthly basis and provides detailed information on small business employment, earnings, and subcontractor trends.

About SurePayroll:
Privately held SurePayroll is America's fifth largest full-service payroll provider and the nation's largest online full-service payroll provider. SurePayroll is passionate about small businesses and their payroll. They are dedicated to providing an extremely friendly and simple payroll experience -- at a price small business owners can afford.

In addition to providing payroll services directly to small business, SurePayroll also provides a private-label payroll service that allows SurePayroll's numerous partners to offer payroll processing to their small business clients. Business partners include ABN AMRO, Pitney Bowes, and MasterCard. SurePayroll will process nearly $3 billion in employee and contractor payroll payments in 2006. For more information, visit www.surepayroll.com.