Dow Jones Newswires (05/30/12) Mia Lamar

Small businesses added approximately 40,000 new jobs in May, adding to the recent pace of tentative employment growth, according to the latest monthly small business employment index from Intuit Inc. Small-business employment increased 0.2% through May 23, equating to an annualized rate of 2.5%, Intuit said. Average monthly pay declined to $2,688 in May, down slightly from the April revised figure of $2,692. Small-business hourly employees worked an average of 106.4 hours in May, down from the revised figure of 107.1 hours in April and making for a 24.6-hour workweek.

“We need growth at this level for two more years for small-business employment to return to the level we saw in early 2007,” says Susan Woodward, an economist working with Intuit.