Small business sales have recorded their strongest growth in almost four years, but the recovery has yet to flow through to jobs or wages.Xero's latest Small Business Insights report (PDF) shows sales among small businesses rose 8.6 percent year-on-year in the June quarter.It was the strongest result in nearly four years and the first quarter since December 2022 that sales growth beat the long-run average of 6.2 percent.But the figures point to a jobless, wageless recovery, with small businesses selling more but still not yet hiring more or lifting pay by much.Jobs were up just 0.7 percent from a year earlier, while wage growth slowed to 1.5 percent, the weakest quarterly increase in the Xero series, which dates back to 2017.Xero country manager Bridget Snelling said the figures showed "what you could call a two-speed recovery", with agriculture "doing the heavy lifting", while consumer-facing sectors remained under pressure.She said the result was cause for "cautious optimism", with improvement across industries but continued uncertainty around fuel costs, global events, consumer spending and business investment decisions."Sales are increasing, but that's a positive kind of early indicator of what might follow, but we haven't seen jobs and wage growth following in the same way just yet," Snelling said.Agriculture sales rose 16.3 percent, making it the strongest performer and the biggest driver of the national result.Construction sales rose 11 percent, although it was flattered by comparisons with a very weak June quarter last year.Manufacturing was up 8.6 percent, while retail sales increased 6.4 percent.Hospitality remained the weakest sector tracked, with sales up just 2.9 percent from a year earlier.The regional picture also reflected the strength of the rural economy, with Canterbury up 12.3 percent, Manawatū-Whanganui up 11.9 percent, Waikato up 10 percent and Southland up 9.6 percent.Auckland and Wellington also posted solid gains, up 7.2 percent and 7.1 percent respectively, but still lagged the strongest agriculture-linked regions.Snelling said more confidence was needed before stronger sales flowed through to hiring and pay."We need more business confidence to then see an improvement in wage growth and in employment growth," she said.The Xero report was based on anonymised and aggregated data from its small business customers.