SAN FRANCISCO, March 5, 2026, 15:34 PST
U.S. small businesses cut 45,300 jobs in February and average revenue fell after inflation, Intuit Inc’s (INTU.O) QuickBooks Small Business Index showed on Wednesday. Employment slipped 0.36% to 12,626,500 workers, with leisure and hospitality losing 11,300 jobs, while average “real” monthly revenue fell 1.03% to $53,580 per business, led by a 5.88% drop in utilities. 1
The data arrives with markets looking for fresh clues on how fast hiring is cooling, a day before the government’s February jobs report is due. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has scheduled the release for March 6 at 8:30 a.m. ET. 2
QuickBooks pitches the index as a fast read on very small firms — the one-to-nine-employee slice — with new data added each month. It says the dataset is built from more than 533,000 businesses on the platform and then adjusted using official statistics before publication. 3
Other labor signals have not flashed the same warning. Weekly initial jobless claims were unchanged at 213,000, and Oxford Economics economist Nancy Vanden Houten said, “The picture of the labor market gleaned from the claims data and other related statistics is not one of deterioration.” 4
The revenue figure is “real revenue,” meaning it is adjusted for inflation by converting dollars to 2017 values, and both revenue and employment are seasonally adjusted to smooth regular calendar swings. QuickBooks’ methodology says it uses official statistics so the index reflects comparable small businesses beyond the firm’s own customer base. 5
Private-sector readings have been uneven this week. Richmond Federal Reserve President Tom Barkin cited payroll data from Vanguard and a private jobs report from ADP as signs hiring has held up, even as he cautioned that inflation remains too high. 6
But the QuickBooks series is modelled, and it can change as new government data refreshes the inputs. QuickBooks says sample sizes can grow or shrink because they depend on businesses using QuickBooks Payroll, and that the index is “not a reflection” of its customers because the data is anonymized, aggregated and adjusted to mirror broader trends. 7
Intuit, based in Mountain View, California, sells TurboTax tax software, QuickBooks accounting products, Credit Karma and Mailchimp. It reports results across small-business and consumer-focused operations. 8
QuickBooks says the Small Business Index is produced with a team of economists led by University of Chicago professor Ufuk Akcigit and is updated monthly. 9
