Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 12, 1995                   TAG: 9504120049
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

SMALL FIRMS TO BE BIG JOB MAKERS

Dun & Bradstreet Corp.'s annual ``5,000 Survey of Employment Expectations'' showed that companies with fewer than 100 employees are expected to account for 66 percent of all new jobs created this year.

Businesses with more than 5,000 employees will account for only 6 percent, the survey said.

``Smaller and typically younger firms are taking advantage of the current economic strength to grow,'' said Joseph W. Duncan, vice president and chief economist for Dun & Bradstreet.

The survey, based on a sample of 5,000 U.S. companies selected from a database of more than 10 million American businesses, showed that 24 percent of companies with fewer than 20 employees reported plans to add jobs this year. Thirty percent of businesses with 20 to 49 employees said they would hire, and 34 percent of businesses with 50 to 99 employees expected an increase.

Executives in the retail and service sectors expected the most job growth; manufacturing and wholesale trade businesses predicted a decline in 1995 from last year.

Only 8 percent of companies with 25,000 or more employees predict they will cut jobs this year, compared with 24 percent in 1994. Twenty-one percent of these companies expect to add jobs this year, up 3 percent from a year ago.

The survey also showed more employee raises this year. Executives in mining, manufacturing, transportation, utilities, financial services, real estate, wholesale trading and the government expect to increase employee compensation.

Dun & Bradstreet is the world's largest marketer of information, software and services for businesses.