Small Businesses Say They'll Hire

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Story Published: Nov 11, 2009 at 12:05 AM PDT

By Stacy Lilienthal

YAKIMA -- The economy may still be in the dumps, but it's the small businesses that may turn it around soon.

Here at Fiddlesticks in Yakima, expect a few more smiles. They just hired a few more workers. Now they have 3 more than they did last year. "You are needing more employees this year versus last year, why is that?" Action News asked owner Michele Sink. "I've seen an increase in traffic and we are a very customer service oriented business," she replied.

A new Intuit study took a poll of small businesses like fiddlesticks nationwide. Nearly half of them say they plan to hire more workers within the next year. The South Central WorkSource director said it's hard to tell how many small businesses here are also planning to expand their workforce. Many hire people they know, or work through temp agencies instead of WorkSource. But we've been reporting several small businesses hiring lately: from the 100 openings at the new Bobs Burger and Brew, to even Odd Balls Novelty.

"We don't have the large corporations, we don't have the large companies, so we really do rely on the small mom and pop kind of businesses," South Central WorkSource Area Director, Ignacio Marquez gave as the reason small businesses are the ones that can pull up our local economy.

But even if there are new openings out there, businesses in the study only plan to hire more part-time help to save money. At fiddlesticks, all of their staff is part-time. "I didn't plan to hire more people, it just kind of worked out that people were available for what we needed," Sink said.

If you're looking to fit a small businesses need too, keep this in mind: 50% of the small businesses surveyed said they were looking for a "people person" or "jack of all trades," over anything else.

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