Main Street Health Report
March 2026
Labor and wage stats
Every month we measure how small businesses are actually doing, from the timesheets of more than 100,000 of them: who is working, how many hours, what they are paid, and how that compares with the same month in previous years.
Small businesses hired boldly while activity recovery stayed measured. Hiring hit a three-year March high, but the spring rebound is still running below historical norms.
- Hourly employees
- 2M+
- Small businesses
- 100K+
- Measured, not surveyed
- Timesheet data
Hourly employees
Small businesses
Measured, not surveyed
Main Street at a glance
The top things to know this month
+0.8%
Employees Working rose in March, alongside Hours Worked (+1.0%), a real seasonal turn, but below the 2025 and 2024 spring recoveries.
1 of 5
Only the Northeast (+1.5%) gained business activity. Entertainment and Hospitality led sector gains while Retail and Beauty contracted.
+45.3%
Cumulative hourly wages above January 2022. Hiring hit its best year-over-year reading in 16 months and turnover is easing.
What the data shows
Each finding below takes one measure of Main Street, participation, hours, wages, hiring and turnover, and compares March 2026 with the same month in the two years before it. Every chart is drawn from the figures, which are published alongside it for anyone who wants to check or reuse them.
Employees working
Workforce participation rebounds, trails prior spring gains
Employees Working rose +0.8% from February to March 2026, a positive seasonal turn but below March 2025's +2.1% gain and March 2024's +1.2% pickup, indicating a decelerating spring recovery.
(Monthly change in 7-day average of “Employees Working”, relative to January of respective year)
| Category | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan – Feb | 2.1% | (1.4%) | 0.0% |
| Feb – Mar | 1.2% | 2.1% | 0.9% |
Hours worked
Hours worked edge up, fall short of last year's surge
Hours Worked rose +1.0% in March, continuing the spring seasonal recovery but tracking well below the +2.9% gain seen in 2025 and +2.1% in 2024, suggesting employers are scheduling more cautiously heading into Q2.
(Monthly change in 7-day average of “Hours Worked”, relative to January of respective year)
| Category | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan – Feb | 2.7% | (1.4%) | 0.7% |
| Feb – Mar | 2.1% | 2.9% | 1.0% |
Businesses open, by region
Northeast stands alone as business openings fall nationwide
The Northeast posted a gain in business activity (+1.5%), while the Southwest (-1.3%), Southeast (-0.9%) and West (-0.8%) all declined month over month; the Midwest held nearly flat (+0.1%). Broad-based softness outside the Northeast suggests regional divergence is widening, not narrowing.
(Month-over-month change in “Businesses Open”, by Census region)
| Region | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midwest | +0.7% | +1.6% | +0.3% |
| Northeast | +3.2% | +2.4% | +1.6% |
| Southeast | −0.8% | −1.1% | −0.8% |
| Southwest | −0.6% | −1.4% | −1.1% |
| West | −1.4% | −0.5% | −0.7% |
| Mid-Atlantic | +0.8% | +5.1% | +1.6% |
| Other | −0.8% | −0.3% | −1.0% |
Note 1. Feb 11–17 vs Mar 10–16 (2024); Feb 09–15 vs Mar 09–15 (2025); Feb 08–14 vs Mar 8–14 (2026).
Note 2. Midwest: ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, MO, WI, IL, IN, OH, MI. West: NV, UT, AZ, NM, CO, WY, MT, ID, OR, WA, CA, HI, AK. Northeast: NY, PA, NJ, CT, RI, MA, NH, VT, ME. Southeast: MS, AL, TN, KY, NC, SC, GA, FL. Southwest: TX, OK, AR, LA.
Employees working, by sector
Entertainment and Hospitality lead as consumer services pull back
Entertainment (+7.0%), Hospitality (+4.4%) and Home & Repair (+4.2%) drove March sector gains, while Beauty & Wellness (-0.7%), Retail (-0.4%) and Medical/Veterinary (-0.1%) contracted. The divergence between experience-driven sectors and everyday consumer services points to continued selectivity in small business hiring.
(Monthly change in 7-day average of “Employees Working”, relative to January of respective year)
| Category | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty & Wellness | (0.3%) | (0.1%) | (0.6%) |
| Caregiving | 2.7% | 2.1% | 1.0% |
| Education | (5.8%) | (4.4%) | (6.4%) |
| Entertainment | 7.9% | 9.2% | 7.0% |
| Food, Drink, & Dining | 1.8% | 2.5% | 1.5% |
| Home & Repair | 4.3% | 6.1% | 5.0% |
| Hospitality | 5.0% | 5.0% | 4.7% |
| Medical / Veterinary | 0.9% | 0.5% | 0.1% |
| Personal Services | 2.9% | 3.8% | 1.5% |
| Professional Services | 0.3% | 2.2% | 1.5% |
| Public or Nonprofit Organization | (1.4%) | 1.7% | (5.9%) |
| Retail | 0.7% | 1.2% | (0.4%) |
| Transportation & Logistics | (1.1%) | (0.8%) | (1.1%) |
Note 1. Feb 11–17 vs Mar 10–16 (2024); Feb 09–15 vs Mar 09–15 (2025); Feb 08–14 vs Mar 8–14 (2026).
Note 2. Entertainment includes events/festivals, sports/recreation, parks, movie theaters and other categories.
Hourly wages, cumulative
Cumulative wages top 45%, but annual growth pace slows
Hourly wages reached +45.3% above January 2022 in March 2026, yet the year-to-date gain of +1.0% trails March 2025's +1.7%, the second consecutive year of decelerating in-year wage growth, suggesting labor cost pressure is persisting but easing at the margin.
(Percent change in average “Hourly Wages” across all jobs, relative to January 2022)
| Period | All industries |
|---|---|
| Point 1 | 1.3% |
| Point 2 | 1.1% |
| Point 3 | 2.7% |
| Point 4 | 3.3% |
| Point 5 | 3.7% |
| Point 6 | 4.4% |
| Point 7 | 5.1% |
| Point 8 | 6.0% |
| Point 9 | 7.3% |
| Point 10 | 7.7% |
| Point 11 | 9.4% |
| Jan'23 | 11.8% |
| Point 13 | 13.4% |
| Point 14 | 13.5% |
| Point 15 | 14.1% |
| Point 16 | 15.0% |
| Point 17 | 15.7% |
| Point 18 | 16.6% |
| Point 19 | 16.7% |
| Point 20 | 18.5% |
| Point 21 | 19.8% |
| Point 22 | 21.2% |
| Point 23 | 22.2% |
| Jan'24 | 24.7% |
| Point 25 | 25.9% |
| Point 26 | 25.8% |
| Point 27 | 26.5% |
| Point 28 | 26.9% |
| Point 29 | 27.5% |
| Point 30 | 27.9% |
| Point 31 | 28.5% |
| Point 32 | 29.3% |
| Point 33 | 29.8% |
| Point 34 | 30.9% |
| Point 35 | 31.4% |
| Jan'25 | 33.7% |
| Point 37 | 35.6% |
| Point 38 | 35.8% |
| Point 39 | 35.9% |
| Point 40 | 35.9% |
| Point 41 | 36.6% |
| Point 42 | 37.5% |
| Point 43 | 37.3% |
| Point 44 | 38.8% |
| Point 45 | 40.1% |
| Point 46 | 40.8% |
| Point 47 | 41.6% |
| Jan'26 | 42.6% |
| Point 49 | 43.5% |
| Mar'26 | 43.7% |
Data measures average hourly wages for locations that used Homebase to pay employees in both March 2025 and March 2026.
Hourly wages, by sector
Retail wages reverse course; Food & Drink momentum fades
Retail drove the reversal, swinging from -0.48% to +0.35% year over year. Overall wages rose 6.0% y/y in March, down from 8.4% a year prior, with Retail (+6.3% y/y) showing the least deceleration among tracked sectors.
(Average “Hourly Wages” across all jobs)
| Category | March 2026 |
|---|---|
| Food & Drink | $13.97 |
| Entertainment | $14.84 |
| Retail | $15.70 |
| Health Care | $20.26 |
| Professional Services | $17.72 |
Data measures average hourly wages for locations that used Homebase to pay employees in both March 2025 and March 2026. Total includes industries not depicted here.
Jobs added
March hiring hits three-year high, spring momentum builds
Jobs Added rose +3.0% month over month in March 2026, surpassing March 2025 (+1.4%) and March 2024 (+0.8%), signaling businesses are entering spring with more confidence. The year-over-year decline in hiring (-1.4%) indicates gradual progress toward stabilization.
(Monthly change in average “Number of Jobs Added” across all jobs)
| Category | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan – Feb | 3.1% | 5.0% | 3.8% |
| Feb – Mar | 0.7% | 0.4% | 2.9% |
Data measures the average monthly change in total jobs created in official employee rosters for companies active in any given month.
Jobs archived
Turnover eases seasonally, tracking within historical range
Jobs Archived came in at +0.4% month over month in March 2026, seasonally consistent with prior years. Year-over-year Jobs Archived is trending toward flat, reinforcing that net labor flow for small businesses is turning positive heading into Q2.
(Monthly change in average “Number of Jobs Archived” across all jobs)
| Category | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan – Feb | (1.7%) | 0.4% | (3.4%) |
| Feb – Mar | (0.1%) | (3.9%) | (0.3%) |
Data measures the average monthly change in total jobs archived in official employee rosters for companies active in any given month.
How we measure Main Street
The dataset is based on Homebase data gathered from more than 100,000 businesses and 2 million hourly employees active in the US on our platform in February 2026, one of the largest and most trusted sources of real-time data on employment growth across the small business landscape.
Data from prior years uses similar cohort-based logic. Unless indicated otherwise, daily figures are calculated relative to the median value for that specific day for the baseline month, net of the first four days of the month.
Every chart on this page is drawn from the underlying figures rather than copied from the PDF. Those figures come from the same model the report is built on, which is refreshed each month as more timesheets land, so a value here may differ slightly from the one printed in the original slide. The PDF stays available above as published.
If you use any content from this report, please include a link to joinhomebase.com.
Measured from timesheets, not surveys
- Hourly employees
- 2M+
- Small businesses
- 100K+
Hourly employees
Small businesses
- Hours worked
Calculated from hours recorded in Homebase timecards.
- Businesses open
Based on whether a business had at least one employee clock-in.
- Employees working
The distinct number of hourly workers with at least one clock-in.
- Wage inflation
The monthly change in average hourly wages at businesses that ran Payroll with Homebase in March 2026 and March 2025.
The story behind the numbers
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Every month the team writes up what these figures mean for the people running the businesses behind them: what changed, what it costs, and what to do about it.
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