Job and Revenue Growth Slow for Middle Market

While mid-market companies continue to fare better than their larger peers in the U.S., year-over-year revenue growth and job growth rates slowed in the final quarter of 2015, according to a report by the National Center for the Middle Market. Overall, mid-market companies reported revenue growth of 6.1 percent in Q4 2015 as compared with 7.2 percent in Q4 2014. What’s more, the smallest mid-market firms saw the biggest slowdown, reporting a 4.7 percent rate of growth for Q4 2015 compared with 6.3 percent at the end of 2014.

In view of this dampening, it’s not surprising that mid-market employment rate growth is also slowing. While nearly one-third of mid-market company survey participants expected to add jobs in 2016, that number is well below the 52 percent of companies that planned to hire at the end of 2014.

Business leaders also are not optimistic about the pace of growth picking up. On average, companies report foreseeing future revenue growth of just 3.7 percent over the next 12 months. A year ago, expectations were an optimistic 6 percent—and actual growth exceeded those expectations.

The tables and charts below offer a look at how 2015 played out for mid-market companies and what they expect from the year to come. For example, 25 percent of mid-market companies are actually holding on to their cash, while just 16 percent are using it for capital expenditures toward plants or equipment.