Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/06/2010 -- A major survey of over 58,000 small businesses has revealed that in September they created over 27,000 jobs nationwide.

The survey was carried out by Intuit Inc, a major payroll provider for small businesses and the companies who took part in the survey were its clients. The survey, Intuit Small Business Employment Index, gathered data from 58,000 small businesses that employed 20 or fewer employees. The reason that small businesses are important in regards to the employment scenario is that they account for 87 percent of the private sector job market, and account for 20 million jobs nationwide.

The 27,000 jobs created by small businesses account for just 0.14 percent growth and the hours worked and compensation levels have stayed the same compared to August. The total number of jobs created by small businesses in the last 12 months was 430,000. The states which saw the greatest increase in small business generated jobs were New York, North Carolina, and Virginia, although in all states the growth rate was below one percent.

CEO A. Harrison Barnes of EmploymentCrossing sees even the slow job growth rate as a positive sign. “I know 27,000 jobs in a month is not a big figure, but small businesses are the backbone of the economic recovery and this report shows that at least they are not laying off workers on the whole.” Barnes’ company, EmploymentCrossing, which is a job aggregator website, has been able to find a total of 118,000 jobs across the country, with several of them coming directly from the websites of small businesses.