General Motors Co. said sales by its top-selling Chevrolet brand to small businesses accelerated in the fourth quarter, signaling job growth may hasten this year, reported Bloomberg.

Deliveries of Chevrolet vehicles to small businesses rose at more than double the rate of the brand’s overall sales in October and November, the Detroit-based automaker said today in a statement. Sales to small businesses surged 54 percent from a year earlier in December, faster than the 9.1 percent gain in overall brand deliveries, GM said.

The gain points to “an increasing likelihood that small businesses will begin hiring in the near term” after owners put off spending during the recession, Don Johnson, GM’s vice president of U.S. sales operations, said in the statement.

GM, the largest U.S. automaker, said earlier this month that 2011 auto sales in its home market may be as much as 13.5 million when including medium-and heavy-duty trucks.

Deliveries of light vehicles may rise to 12.9 million vehicles, the average of 17 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg earlier this month. Sales rebounded to 11.6 million vehicles last year from a 27-year low in 2009, according to researcher Autodata Corp. in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.