This page does not contain Institutional links | Cette page contient aucun lien institutionnel

Key Small Business Statistics - July 2008

How many people work for small businesses?

To best answer this question, it is necessary to look at business establishments as part of the larger enterprise to which they belong, where applicable. Statistics Canada defines a business enterprise as "a family of businesses under common ownership and control for which a set of consolidated financial statements is produced on an annual basis." Statistics Canada's Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) covers employer businesses in Canada and reports the number of employees at the enterprise level. Self-employed persons who are not on a payroll are not included in these figures, nor are employees in the following industries: agriculture, fishing and trapping, private household services, religious organizations and military personnel of defence services. Firms are grouped into seven size categories: those with fewer than 5 employees, from 5 to 19, from 20 to 49, from 50 to 99, from 100 to 299, from 300 to 499, and 500 and more employees.

According to SEPH data, on average in 2007, just over 5.1 million employees on payroll, or 48 percent of the total private sector labour force,⁵ worked for small enterprises (those with fewer than 100 employees) as shown in Table 5. More than 1.7 million, or 16 percent, worked for medium-sized enterprises (those with 100 to 499 employees). In total, therefore, SMEs employed just over 6.8 million, or 64 percent, of private sector employees covered by SEPH.

Table 5: Number of Private Sector Employees by Industry and Size of Business Enterprise, 2007^{1, 2, 3}

Industry	Total	Size of Business Enterprise (No. of Employees)
		0–4	5–19	20–49	50–99	Small (<100)	100–299	300–499	Medium (100–499)	Large (500+)
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH), April 2008, and calculations by Industry Canada. Industry data are classified in accordance with the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Note 1: SEPH data exclude self-employed workers who are not on a payroll, and employees in the following industries: agriculture, fishing and trapping, private household services, religious organizations and military personnel of defence services. The data breaking down employment by size of firm also exclude unclassified industries. Note 2: Besides data excluded from the SEPH, data shown in this table also exclude employment in public administration, public utilities (water, sewage and other systems), postal services, public transit, educational services, and institutional and other government-funded health care services, but include employment in the CBC, private practices (physicians, dentists and other health practitioners), and beer and liquor stores. Industry Canada's Small Business Quarterly regularly publishes data similar to those in Table 5, but without excluding public sector employment. A technical note on the separation of public and private sector employment is available upon request by contacting Customer Services at sbrp-rppe@ic.gc.ca. Note 3: By conventional Statistics Canada definition, the goods-producing sector consists of North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes 11 to 31–33, while NAICS codes 41 to 91 define the service-producing sector.
Forestry	58 409	8 795	14 659	10 101	6 157	39 712	6 528	1 605	8 133	10 565
Mining	191 514	8 766	15 711	13 472	10 733	48 682	20 457	12 674	33 131	109 701
Utilities2	109 086	122	384	292	396	1 193	2 956	1 344	4 300	103 593
Construction	785 836	137 380	228 602	142 148	83 341	591 471	85 612	23 041	108 653	85 712
Manufacturing	1 784 722	43 051	165 349	205 208	190 330	603 938	311 000	135 615	446 615	734 168
Percent in Goods- Producing Sector	27.1	21.4	23.2	26.6	28.2	24.8	33.6	36.7	34.5	26.8
Wholesale Trade	758 786	55 088	144 079	118 953	83 961	402 081	109 741	41 073	150 814	205 891
Retail Trade	1 789 982	116 315	294 262	220 612	177 186	808 375	163 633	36 866	200 499	781 107
Transportation and Warehousing2	548 768	42 790	63 215	50 645	41 448	198 097	51 988	20 816	72 804	277 867
Information and Cultural	354 263	10 554	22 085	21 994	18 877	73 510	28 881	15 301	44 182	236 571
Finance and Insurance	624 222	29 522	41 245	36 877	31 430	139 074	44 341	23 782	68 123	417 025
Real Estate and Rental	251 084	42 195	56 795	32 704	22 869	154 563	25 740	11 452	37 192	59 327
Professional Services	725 511	137 414	144 513	90 521	60 548	432 996	79 227	31 274	110 501	182 014
Management of Companies and Enterprises	97 924	10 636	13 730	11 224	6 585	42 175	9 554	3 448	13 002	42 747
Administration, Waste Management	714 430	50 345	94 943	70 711	54 705	270 704	102 995	51 542	154 537	289 189
Health2	217 685	67 649	92 963	26 640	7 478	194 730	1 823	825	2 648	20 307
Arts, Entertainment and Recreation	239 268	15 410	38 670	35 286	27 696	117 062	32 365	10 348	42 713	79 493
Accommodation and Food	1 046 193	47 376	238 222	238 698	169 005	693 301	136 614	36 485	173 099	179 791
Other Services	524 148	102 814	164 433	70 915	40 729	378 891	54 693	17 551	72 244	73 012
Percent in Service- Producing Sector	72.9	78.6	76.8	73.4	71.8	75.2	66.4	63.3	65.5	73.2
Industry Aggregate Total	10 821 831	926 221	1 833 860	1 397 001	1 033 473	5 190 555	1 268 147	475 043	1 743 190	3 888 080

The distribution of employment by size of firm varies considerably across industries. As shown in Table 5 and Figure 3, small businesses account for over two thirds of employment in five industries: the (non-institutional) health care sector (89 percent), the construction industry (76 percent), other services (73 percent), accommodation and food (67 percent), and forestry (67 percent). In three other industries, at least half of the workforce is employed by small businesses. Lastly, in terms of the total number of employees, industries that had the largest number of employees working for small firms were, in order of magnitude, retail trade (0.80 million), accommodation and food (0.69 million), manufacturing (0.60 million), construction (0.59 million), professional services (0.43 million) and wholesale trade (0.40 million). These industries alone accounted for 68 percent of all jobs in small firms in Canada.

Figure 3: Number of Private Sector Employees by Industry and Size of Business Enterprise, 2007^{1, 2}

D

Source: Statistics Canada, Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH), April 2007, and calculations by Industry Canada. Industry data are classified in accordance with the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Note 1: SEPH data exclude self-employed workers who are not on a payroll, and employees in the following industries: agriculture, fishing and trapping, private household services, religious organizations and military personnel of defence services. The data breaking down employment by size of firm also exclude unclassified industries.

Note 2: Besides data excluded from the SEPH, data shown in this figure also exclude employment in public administration, public utilities (water, sewage and other systems), postal services, public transit, educational services, and institutional and other government-funded health care services, but include employment in the CBC, private practices (physicians, dentists and other health practitioners), and beer and liquor stores. Industry Canada's Small Business Quarterly regularly publishes data similar to those in Figure 3, but without excluding public sector employment. A technical note on the separation of public and private sector employment is available upon request by contacting Customer Services at sbrp-rppe@ic.gc.ca.

---

5. Private sector employment in the SEPH data was identified with the aid of Employment Dynamics and Small Business Profiles data for corresponding years and by projecting trends for more recent years. A technical note on the methodology used in this process is available and can be obtained by contacting Customer Services at sbrp-rppe@ic.gc.ca. In addition to the industries excluded from SEPH, data shown in Table 5 and Figure 3 exclude employment in public administration, public utilities (water, sewage and other systems), postal services, public transit, educational services, and institutional and other government-funded health care services, but include employment in the CBC, private practices (physicians, dentists and other health practitioners), and beer and liquor stores.