On the Rise Employment and salaries continue to grow.

Entrepreneurs hired more employees and paid higher salaries during the first part of 2007, in a growth trend that began this year, reports the SurePayroll Hiring Index. Com-piled by payroll service SurePayroll, the Index ended in June at 10,676, up 0.4 percent from May and marking an unbroken string of increases since last December.

"The first six months of this year are starting out significantly better than 2006," says SurePayroll president Michael Alter. So far, hiring is up 2.2 percent for 2007, and the number continues to rise.