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Key Small Business Statistics - July 2012
How has self-employment contributed to job creation?
Generally, the increasing trend toward self-employment has supported total employment growth. Positive contributions to total net employment growth in the private sector have ranged from 13 percent to 40 percent per year between 2001 and 2011 (Table 12).Footnote 9 The number of self-employed workers fell in 2010, which is only the fifth time this has happened over the 1981–2011 period (Figure 11). The other four years were 1986, 2000, 2001 and 2006. In 1982, 1991, 1992 and 2009, self-employment grew, while total employment growth turned negative due to economic recessions. It is interesting to note that the two greatest increases in the number of self-employed persons relative to the overall change in private sector employment occurred at the end of these recessions (in 1983 and 1993)—167 percent in 1983 and 125 percent in 1993.
| Year | Private Sector Total Net Employment Change (thousands) |
Private Sector Employees | Self-Employed Persons | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net Change (thousands) |
Percentage of Total Private Sector Employment Change | Net Change (thousands) |
Percentage of Total Private Sector Employment Change | ||
|
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, April 2012. |
|||||
| 2001 | 138.3 | 235.4 | 170 | -97.1 | -70 |
| 2002 | 298.9 | 261.1 | 87 | 37.8 | 13 |
| 2003 | 315.0 | 227.6 | 72 | 87.3 | 28 |
| 2004 | 186.2 | 134.7 | 72 | 51.5 | 28 |
| 2005 | 144.1 | 85.9 | 60 | 58.2 | 40 |
| 2006 | 240.0 | 253.6 | 106 | -13.6 | -6 |
| 2007 | 297.3 | 180.2 | 61 | 117.1 | 39 |
| 2008 | 117.7 | 103.1 | 88 | 14.6 | 12 |
| 2009 | -264.6 | -336.6 | 127 | 72.1 | -27 |
| 2010 | 92.9 | 124.9 | 134 | -31.9 | -34 |
| 2011 | 213.2 | 212.6 | 100 | 0.7 | 0 |
[Description of Figure 11]Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, April 2012.
Footnotes
- Footnote 9
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In Table 12, employment in the private sector is defined as the total of self-employed workers and private sector employees, regardless of business size. The definition of private sector employees in the Labour Force Survey used in Table 12 is not identical to the definition in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) data in Tables 5 to 7, but the differences are minor.
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