In which we go looking for the canary in the economic coal mine.

From American public media, this is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kai Rizzdahl. It is Wednesday, today the third day of December. Good as always to have you along, everybody.

We are agreed, are we not, that the labor market is the whole deal right now, yes? Sure, inflation,

but people working in this economy are uneasy about their prospects. Companies are

adding fewer jobs, and the Federal Reserve, as you know, has made clear its heightened interest.

Also, and not for nothing, we're a couple of months behind on actually measuring the American

job market. So of necessity, as we have talked about, private data is playing a more important

role. To wit, the private payroll processing company ADP told us this morning that by its count,

this economy, net net, lost 32,000 jobs last month. For small businesses, though, that's companies

with less than 50 employees, They lost 120,000 jobs. What you ask might be warned from that? Marketplace's Sabree Benishore has the answer.

Anna Hammond is CEO of matriarch foods, which employs four people. They take surplus crops and byproducts and turn them into finished food like

pasta sauce and even meal kits for emergencies. I asked her, how is business? Things are okay, actually.

She's even considering adding more employees. Tariffs haven't been an issue for Matriarch. All of the

vegetables are U.S. grown.

Inflation? They've mostly dodged.

Because we work with byproducts and surplus, you know, our costs are less.

But Hammond can sense a change in buyers.

People be much, much, much more careful with the dollars that they're spending.

Still, for now, Hammond is optimistic, as are many small business owners, according to surveys by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The small business economy is holding steady.

Tom Sullivan is Senior Vice President for Small Business Policy at the Chamber.

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