Research & Data
The smallest U.S. businesses generated more real revenue in September even as they employed fewer workers, according to the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index published October 1.
The index estimates that businesses with one to nine employees shed 7,000 jobs in September, a 0.05% decline from August, leaving employment at about 12.93 million. Over the same month, average real monthly revenue rose 1.68% to $50,560 per business, measured in seasonally adjusted 2017 dollars.
Broad on both sides
The split was wide. Employment declined in 10 of the 12 sectors QuickBooks tracks and in all eight U.S. regions, while revenue increased in 11 of 12 sectors and in all eight regions.
The Southeast, which QuickBooks defines as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, posted the largest regional employment decline, an estimated 1,700 small-business jobs.
The index does not publish an estimate for Georgia or for metro Atlanta, so the Southeast result should not be read as a Georgia or Atlanta figure.
Where jobs and revenue moved
By sector, education and health services posted the largest job loss, an estimated 2,600. Leisure and hospitality was the only sector where revenue fell, down 0.30%, yet it led job gains with an estimated 600.
Among regions, the Rocky Mountain region had the fastest rate of employment decline, at 0.08%, while the Southwest had the fastest revenue growth, at 2.65%. All 20 states QuickBooks reports individually lost small-business jobs, led by California at 1,100. Tennessee, a Southeast state, had the fastest state revenue growth, at 3.74%.
What the index measures
The index is a modeled estimate, not a census of small businesses. QuickBooks says it is powered by anonymized data from 533,000 QuickBooks customers, official statistics and economic models developed by economist Ufuk Akcigit and a team of independent economists, and calibrated to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Its estimates are revised as new data arrive.
The report does not explain why revenue rose while employment fell, and a single month of data does not establish a trend.
What to watch: whether October employment stabilizes, whether revenue gains continue, and whether the Southeast employment decline persists.
Sources
- Intuit QuickBooks, “Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index: October 2026,” October 1, 2026. https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/small-business-data/index/october-2026/
Featured photo: Inside an independent hardware store in Arlington, Massachusetts, in 2024. Representative image of a small business; not identified as a QuickBooks user. Photo: Daderot, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0). Cropped from the original.
