About Martin Mucci
Martin Mucci, former President and CEO of Paychex, appeared on financial news programs in 2022 and 2023 to discuss the company's performance and labor market trends. In a March 2023 interview on CNBC's "Mad Money," Mucci noted that Paychex's stock had increased significantly since he began appearing on the show 12 years ago, and he credited the company's 16,000 employees for navigating challenges including recession and COVID-19. He also discussed government subsidies, stating that programs like the Paycheck Protection Program and Employee Retention Tax Credit had helped sustain businesses, and suggested policymakers "ought to keep an eye on something like that for the future."
In earlier appearances, Mucci commented on wage growth and hiring conditions for small businesses. In March 2022, he described wage growth as "really strong" at 4.8% year-over-year, and said small businesses faced pressure from supply chain issues and inflation but had strong demand. He noted that rising interest rates benefit Paychex due to the float it carries, but expressed concern about the impact on clients and new business formation. In May 2021, Mucci attributed a pickup in small business hiring to the reopening of leisure and hospitality sectors, and said businesses were optimistic about demand but worried about finding workers. In September 2020, he reported that small business job growth had held steady after an initial rebound from pandemic shutdowns, and said the PPP program had helped many businesses continue operating.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Martin Mucci's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Interviewer0:00
Before we get to PPP specifically, I wanted to gauge in your very educated opinion where the unemployment rate probably sits roughly at this stage.
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Martin Mucci0:12
Well, it's really hard to say because you have a lot of furloughed employees who aren't necessarily completely off the payrolls. I think it's going to be very early to tell. We're seeing a lot of small businesses, in particular, trying to keep their employees within their company, wait for the loans and get it paid. So it's certainly going to be up, I think, in the double digits, but it's pretty hard to tell right now. I think it's going to take through the end of April to kind of see really how everything falls out.
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Interviewer0:41
I asked that, Marty, because part of the design of this PPP program was to try and prevent people from becoming unemployed in the first place. To what extent do you think the program was well designed and, perhaps more importantly, is being well executed? I understand the optimism and I know it's been an enormous lift to get to even where we are. But if we continue to see delays of money getting out the door to small businesses for the next week or two, will the money arrive too late?
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Martin Mucci1:13
Well, I think the program has been happening the fastest I've ever seen out of the federal government, so I'm very impressed with what they've done and the ability of this program to keep people employed in small businesses under 500 employees. I do think it was a little bumpy at first; there were regulations still changing and guidance still changing even up till Monday night about what was needed and what would be given in the loans. But I think just the fact that we're now over 300,000 paychecks we've issued, over 300,000 payroll reports which allow you to immediately get that to the SBA, and that's all you need for the loan. This process is moving better now. As Kate said, we're hearing from our clients that some are already getting money. It's a little early; some of the banks had to work through some kinks, but the banks are working very hard to get this turned around and we're hearing that that is smoothing out quite quickly. You think about it, it's only Wednesday and really this started on Friday.
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Interviewer2:11
No, I agree. We might look back on this in due course to commend the way it's been rolled out, but difficult to conclude that quite yet. Marty, more broadly, what data are you seeing in terms of the employment landscape? And if we look at things regionally across America, does it correlate very tightly with the areas that are seeing the worst data on the virus, or is this already just a national phenomenon?
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Martin Mucci2:34
Well, it's certainly national, but you're right, we are seeing it more in states where they hit the earliest because they shut down the earliest. When you think about New York, California, those areas are where there are more employees that are at least furloughed or not getting their paychecks today because they had an earlier shutdown, particularly of course the restaurants and personal service things like barber shops and salons. You are seeing a quick uptick there, and I do think that the program has worked in the speed of it, in the fact that businesses are trying to hold those employees. Hopefully, if the money can flow this week, they will continue to get paychecks, and that'll really be a boost to everybody's morale. And I think the fact that we could get started back up quickly if they didn't completely shut down as a business.
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Interviewer3:22
Maxime, you see? Thanks so much for joining me.
