One Weird Type of Employer Grew in Q2: Analysts

Those strange companies are also predicting the strongest future revenue growth.

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If financial professionals are looking for prospects with reasonably stable income, they might consider seeking out employees of companies with about $50 million to $100 million in annual revenue.

Companies at that revenue level may have increased their revenue by 0.7% in the second quarter, as revenue at all businesses with $10 million to $1 billion in annual revenue fell 3.7%, and as revenue at S&P 500 companies fell 14%.

Analysts with the National Center for the Middle Market, an Ohio State research center backed by Chubb, have included a little data on the strength of the “core of the middle market” in a summary of results from a survey of about 1,000 top executives at middle market businesses.

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Analysts prepared the summary to show how COVID-19 has affected middle market businesses.

The analysts say their survey reflects the overall performance of all of the 200,000 U.S. businesses with $10 million to $1 billion in annual revenue.

Revenue for all of the middle market businesses that the survey team tracks fell 3.7% in the second quarter. That compares with 8.5% revenue growth in the second quarter of 2019, before COVID-19 had surfaced.

The middle market businesses in the complete survey sample predicted that they would increase their revenue by 2% over the next 12 months.

The “core of the middle market” businesses in the survey — the ones with $50 million to $100 million in annual revenue — predicted 3.9% revenue growth over that same 12-month period.

The middle of the middle market businesses also reported the most stable employment levels: They employed just 0.6% fewer people June 30 than they had employed a year earlier.

For all middle market businesses in the sample, the average employment drop was 4.4%.

— Read U.S. Must Fix ‘Bipolar Economy’: BlackRock’s Finkon ThinkAdvisor.

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