Arizona continues to be a leader in job creation as the economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, topping the nation for small business growth for the second month in a row, according to data released Tuesday.
The Grand Canyon State ranked first in the index for small business growth in August, edging out Texas and Georgia, which ranked second and third, according to the Small Business Jobs Index from by Paychex and IHS Markit.
The study compares job growth from 350,000 Paychex clients with 50 or fewer employees to what it was in 2004, which is the baseline. The index baseline of 100 was the average rate of growth that year. Arizona outpaced its growth from 2004, with an index of 102.58 in August of this year, the study said.
According to the study, Arizona’s small business employment grew 7.12% in the 12-month period from August 2020 to August of this year. By comparison, the nation’s small business employment grew 5.74% during that period.
