Although unemployment reached a new high at 9.8 percent, there are positive signs in small business according to a survey by SurePayroll.com.

According to the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, the SurePayroll hiring index, a proxy for the size of the average small business work force, is up 1.9 percent year-to-date. The hiring index increased to 11,494 in September 2009 from 11,188 in September 2008. See the scorecard.

The Midwest hiring index increased 4.2 percent from one year ago, the second-highest increase among the four regions of the country. The West declined 2 percent, the South increased 3.2 percent, and the Northeast showed the largest increase at 4.9 percent.

For the month of September, the nation’s hiring index increased just 5 points from August’s level of 11,489; the Midwest increased 34 points to 10,957 from August’s level of 10,923 (0.3 percent).

Despite the increase in the hiring index, SurePayroll’s Pay Index, which measures the average size of small business employees’ paychecks, decreased for the 20th month in a row. The pay index dropped to 962 in September, from 967 in August, and is down 6.5 percent for the year to date.

The Northeast has been hit the hardest in the last year, with its average paycheck decreasing 8 percent; paychecks in the Midwest decreased 5.9 percent; in the South, 5.5 percent; and in the West, 1.3 percent.

In the survey, optimism levels dropped 11 percent from levels in August. The survey also found that independent-contractor hiring is up 14 percent year-to-date, which, according to SurePayroll CEO Michael Alter, illustrates that “any recovery for small businesses will include a catching-up period to move past the current state of underemployment, where people are working less hours, or working for less money.”