I suppose you could draw that conclusion. During the recession, we did a study of our members which showed that they were the first to hire and the last to fire. Often, they would forgo salaries themselves in their efforts to keep their employees during a time of economic instability. We know that small business owners do what they can to keep their employees, largely because of the investment they make in hiring. It is expensive to hire and train someone, so they do whatever they can to keep them until they absolutely can't.
On November 22nd, 2016. See this statement in context.