NEW YORK - February 8, 2010 - Small businesses are becoming fuel for the continued Depression by limiting growth and job creation.

Companies with fewer than 500 employees, such as Phoenix Technologies, Ltd. and Sonic Corp., helped lead the economy out of the four recessions since 1980. This time, they continue to cut capital spending and dismiss workers, eliminating 3,000 jobs in January, according to Roseland, New Jersey-based Automatic Data Processing, Inc., the world’s largest payroll processor.

Improvement in the unemployment rate, which fell to 9.7% in January from 10% in December, may stall later this year if these firms aren’t hiring, and growth likely won’t meet the median 2.7% annual rate forecast for 2010 by 67 economists in a January 14 Bloomberg News survey.

“Will you have a sustainable recovery a few years down the road without getting some small-business spending? No,” said Cary Leahey, senior managing director at Decision Economics, Inc. in New York and a former White House economist. “Wall Street gets it.”