Layoffs are all the rage these days. Microsoft, Zoom, Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce are just some of the companies that have let go of thousands of employees.

Yet the labor market remains white hot. Unemployment is 3.4 percent. It’s a question that I consider in The Nine: The Tectonic Forces Reshaping the Workplace.

Why?

Lots of things are at play, but here’s a biggie.

Small business growth over the past three years has been phenomenal, but don’t believe me. Since February 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey reports that firms with fewer than 250 employees have hired 3.67 million more people than they’ve lost.

That number starkly contrasts with larger businesses that employ 250 individuals or more. As a whole, the latter group has trimmed 800,000 net jobs during this three-year period.

This trend bodes well for fractional CFOs like Ken Weil. Ditto for CIOs and chief legal counsels.

Smaller firms are exactly the types that benefit from locking in part-time experts as they confront new challenges.