Press release
Small Businesses Make Financial Gains, Closing the Gap with Large Businesses
Principal Financial Well-Being Index SM finds small businesses are hiring more as current optimism grows Despite a competitive labor market, 42% of smaller
About this update from Principal Financial Group Inc
[{"type":"text","content":"\nPrincipal Financial Well-Being Index SM finds small businesses are hiring more as current optimism grows\n\n\nDespite a competitive labor market, 42% of smaller businesses report increased staff vs 19% in November 2020.\n\n\nGap in financial health between smaller and larger businesses is narrowing, with smaller businesses seeing greater financial improvement.\n\n\n67% of businesses report financial improvement vs 44% at this time last year.\n\n\nFor the first time, employers are planning on increasing childcare support as a key employee benefit to attract new employees.\n\n\n DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nPrincipal Financial Group® reported today that small and medium-sized businesses1 (SMBs) are showing stronger current financial health and an increase in hiring, despite the ongoing impacts of COVID-19. At the same time, a shifting environment, lingering economic impacts from the pandemic and increasing employee turnover have made businesses more cautious about their 12-month outlook.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211207005422/en/Third wave of business insights for 2021 (Photo: Business Wire)\n“The last 18-plus months have tested small businesses and caused many to fundamentally change their businesses, find new ways to operate, take care of their employees, and get work done. They’ve navigated through this crisis and are gaining confidence. Small businesses are using the new muscles they built to accelerate financial growth and increase staff in support of that growth,” says Amy Friedrich, president of U.S. Insurance Solutions at Principal®.\n\nThe latest Principal Financial Well-Being IndexSM (WBI), in its eighth year, reveals the gap between smaller and larger businesses is narrowing when it comes to growth and financial improvement. Smaller businesses2 report greater financial improvement (59%) compared to this time last year (31%); similarly, larger businesses3 report financial improvement (80%) when compared to last year at this time (63%). Smaller businesses are catching up to the improved economic performance relative to their larger counterparts.\n\nThese findings are from the latest WBI pulse survey of 500 employers from companies with two to 10,000 employees and span a diverse array of industries, with more than half of the empl...