Page 31 - April 2024 INSIGHT MAGAZINE.indd

business realities of all small firms, but • An underrepresented group in terms of • Retail sales data show that e-commerce
especially micro firms. business ownership (2.2%) compared enjoyed a massive spike early in the
• Nearly half of all small businesses with their share of the population (22%) pandemic but have since moderated
are in the following four industries: is persons with a disability. Given the as Canadians go back to in-person
professional, scientific, and technical prevalence of disability, this gap signals shopping. The share of total retail sales
services; construction; retail trade; and tremendous untapped potential for from e-commerce increased rapidly
health care and social assistance. entrepreneurship, but also one with from 3.7% in January 2020 to peak of
significant potential e†ects on socio-
10.7% just four months later in April
• Immigrants to Canada own a economic outcomes, including labour 2020. With the liting of pandemic
disproportionate share of private sector market participation. related restrictions and stores have
businesses (263,850 businesses, or reopened for in-person shoppers, this
25.5% of all private sector businesses) • The LGBTQ2+ population (4% of figure has since moderated to 5.7%.
compared with their share of population Canada’s total population according
(23%). One strong factor is immigrants’ to the 2021 Census) is also somewhat • In addition to age, variation by industry
high share of micro businesses (30%), in underrepresented as business owners showed a strong trend in technology
contrasts with their underrepresentation (3.3%), lagging most as owners of mature adoption. Overall, average adoption
in both scale and mature enterprises. businesses (0.6%). shares across all industries and all
technology tools were lowest for micro
• The past few years have o†ered women • Although they are 5% of the country’s firms (12%), followed by scale (16%)
more flexible work arrangements, population, Indigenous people’s share and then mature firms (22%). Small
encouraging them to find more in- of businesses owned remains less than businesses — particularly scale and
demand and higher-paying jobs, while half of that (2.2%), although they appear mature — in finance and insurance,
government e†orts to increase the to be doing better on ownership of information and culture, professional
availability of a†ordable childcare mature businesses, the largest type of services and wholesale trade were
have helped women’s labour force small business. consistently among those reporting the
participation to rebound. With the • The most recent data (June 2023) show highest technology adoption rates.
transition back to the o ce, barriers that that, compared with pre-pandemic
perpetuate gender-based di†erences in conditions in December 2019, the
labour force participation threaten this number of businesses increased by 7.3%
progress. for large firms, 5.0% for medium firms
and only 2.9% for small firms.

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