Dallas Posts Another Win for Small Business Hiring

Dallas’ star has shined more than the rest of the country for six consecutive months when it comes to hiring among businesses with fewer than 50 employees, contributing to the region's strong real estate market.

This month, the Texas metropolitan area registered 103.19 on the latest Paychex|IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch’s review of payroll data to beat all others again. A rating above 100 means hiring growth exceeds levels in 2004, a year considered normal for growth.

Meanwhile, small business hiring growth remains flat across the country, coming in at 98.77 on the index. Martin Mucci, Paychex’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the small business sector still faces challenges finding qualified people. Based on recent survey backed by Paychex, “a majority of small business leaders say they’re willing to consider hiring underqualified candidates who could then be trained on the job,” Mucci said.

Atlanta and Seattle joined the 100-club with Phoenix, Tampa and Denver. The report highlighted Seattle’s surge while noting that Phoenix, however, “suffered the largest one-month decline.”

The strong hiring in Dallas tracks with the resurgence in Texas’s stalwart oil-and-gas industry. But the job growth in general has been fueled by more diversity, notably with deals such as drug maker McKesson moving from San Francisco to the area or Allstate Insurance expanding.

Based on the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most of the region’s job growth has been in professional services such as accounting and law firms and “other services," a kind of catch-all that includes dry cleaning businesses, auto repair, personal care and even dating services.

Combined, those two groups accounted for nearly 7% of the 102,500 jobs added in the Dallas area between February 2018 and February 2019. Leisure and hospitality represented 5% of the growth.

Tenants filled a net 3.5 million square feet of office space in the first quarter and have hit 3.7 million square feet so far this quarter, according to Paul Hendershot, CoStar’s Dallas market analyst.

“That’s a lot of space being occupied in office,” Hendershot said. “We’re in the top five in the country consistently.”

Retail services have been flowing in with the new people brought by the new corporate jobs. But finding space is a challenge with the vacancy rate sitting at a relatively low 4.6%.