SurePayroll, the online alternative in payroll services, today announced October results for its monthly Small Business Scorecard showing small business owner optimism leapt 20% to 53% from a record-low last month. The SurePayroll Scorecard includes hiring and wage data for the top 35 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas and surveys national small business owner optimism each month.

For October 2011, the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard reveals that on a national level there continues to be flat or decreased hiring for the 13th month in a row, totaling a year-to-date decline in hiring of 2.9% -- this downward turn is slowing since September. Wages remain down slightly (0.6%) for the year.

"Optimism is like the fuel that drives small business. With small business optimism taking such a strong upswing, we can be hopeful that hiring and wage trends may follow," said SurePayroll President Michael Alter. "While hiring is down, a closer look at the numbers shows the decline is slowing. And while wages appear flat, they are in fact up just a bit from this time last year. That coupled with rising optimism makes me think next month may be even brighter for small business."

The SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard's optimism survey also found that small business owners have their minds set on long-term growth and indicate that the current administration and presidential candidates should be focusing on putting our fiscal house in order. Other findings from the optimism survey include:

• 51% of small business owners report that the most critical issues related to job growth are balancing the budget, reducing the deficit an stabilizing the housing market.
• 45% think some kind of flat tax would have a positive impact on hiring.
• 44% think a flat tax would have no impact on hiring and roughly 11 percent thought it could have a negative impact on hiring.

MSA data from the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard shows that for the seventh consecutive month, the South remains the only positive hiring region, having experienced minimal MOM growth in hiring. In contrast, the Northeast, Midwest, and West again continue to show negative MOM growth. Year to date, the South is up .5%, while the other regions are all negative.

Small business owners continue to rely on contractors to fill their needs versus hiring new employees--contractor use showed a month over month (MOM) increase of 1.3%.