Small business owners, reeling from banks’ tightened lending practices and decreased consumer spending during the recession, are also having to make due with smaller staffs, CNNMoney.com reported.

According to a report this week from Automatic Data Processing Inc., a payroll processor, companies with fewer than 50 employees slashed 75,000 workers in October.

And though October’s job losses represented the smallest number of job cuts in a single month job since July 2008, analysts predict the losses will continue at least through the end of the year.

“Losses are likely to continue for at least a few more months, but at a diminishing rate,” said Joel Prakken, chairman of St. Louis-based Macroeconomic Advisers LLC.

A telephone survey of 830 small business owners in October found that 74 percent of those polled don’t plan to hire any new employees for in the next 90 days. The survey was conducted from Oct. 25-30 by George S. May International.

Following three years of growth, sales at small companies with annual revenues of less than $10 million have dropped about 4 percent this year, according to a recent analysis by Sageworks Inc.

ADP estimates that since 2008, 2.6 million jobs at small companies have evaporated.

“They are trying to function with the minimal number of employees,” said Elizabeth Klimback, executive director of the North Texas Small Business Development Center. “You have fewer people doing more work, and it puts a strain on the small business.”