According to the Denver Business Journal, small business hiring in Colorado was only up 0.15 percent in August. This is lower than the national average of 0.16 percent, however only slightly slower. In addition, the number of online ads for jobs also fell in August to only 4,700 jobs being posted.

So what accounts for the fall in the number of new hires and jobs being posted? The number one cause seems to be uncertainty in the economic climate. US economic growth is still lower than it has been in years and companies are leery of hiring when they don’t know whether they can support the position for the long term. The few areas that seem to not be suffering are technology and other professional level positions.

Which leads to the second reason for lower growth: companies are having a hard time finding employees that can do the jobs they needs. Companies are looking to hire those with backgrounds in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). As the number of people with this backgrounds increases in other countries, companies are going to these countries for a steady educated workforce.

And finally, even those companies that can hire are waiting to see what regulations are going to be at the beginning of the year. Recent reports show that many companies are hesitant to hire when it will bring them to the point that they need to comply with federal regulations like the Affordable Health Care Act.

So what do you do if you are a company that needs, or even wants, to hire someone? An HR consultant can help you draft the job description and create employment packages to retain the best people. In addition, speaking to your small business attorney and your CPA can make sure that you aren’t incurring legal or tax obligations that you can’t handle.

If you are looking to hire and want to make sure you are doing everything right, please schedule an appointment today!