Despite a drop from April, North Texas remained among the top metros for small business employment last month.
The Dallas metro area retained the second spot on the Paychex | IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch despite having dropped 0.87 percent from April to May.
Dallas' index score of 101.16 put it ahead of all but Tampa at 102.13. Joined by Phoenix at 100.69, the three were the only metros with index scores above 100 in May.
In the past 12 months, the Dallas metro's index score has grown 5.14 percent - only Minneapolis and Riverside in California had higher growth percentages in the last year.
Texas was near the top of the heap nationwide as one of six states with index scores above 100 in May. While Arizona, with a score of 100.48, saw some growth, Texas ended the month at 100.76 to hold the No. 1 spot.
Since last May, the hourly wage in Texas grew 1.62 percent to $27.63. In the Dallas area, hourly wage growth was slightly higher at 1.85 percent, bringing the metro's May earnings to $28.78 an hour.
Nationally, the job index dropped slightly from 98.34 in April to 98.27 in May. Hourly earnings were $29.17, a 12-month growth rate of 2.72 percent or 77 cents.
When ranked by industry, construction dropped from the top spot after a -1.78 percent change from April to May.
“In addition to the hiring challenges seen nationally, job growth declines in the construction industry impacted the positive momentum of the past few months,” said Martin Mucci, Paychex president and CEO, in a prepared statement. "The high cost and low availability of materials drove job growth in construction down 1.78 percent in May."
The monthly report, released by Paychex Inc. (Nasdaq: PAYX), provides national employment and wage trends using payroll data from roughly 350,000 Paychex clients with fewer than 50 workers. A region's index score reflects the area's small business health compared to a baseline score of 100 - when above, it means a region surpassed its pre-recession 2004 performance.