List: North Carolina 10th in nation for small biz
North Carolina recently nabbed the last spot on a top 10 list of states that should be the best climates for small businesses this year.
The annual list, from Illinois-based payroll provider SurePayroll, ranks states based on past strong small-business growth. North Carolina made this year's list for growing its pool of small-biz employees during 2006.
But we were the only state among SurePayroll's top ten that did not post growth in average employee salaries last year. North Carolina saw salaries drop an average of 0.9 percent last year at small businesses.
North Carolina ranked seventh on SurePayroll's list last year and fifth in 2005. This year, the state followed (in order): Utah, Maryland, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Indiana, California and Texas.