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Key Small Business Statistics - July 2008
How many people are self-employed?
In 2007, there were 2.6 million self-employed workers, representing around 15 percent of all employed workers in the Canadian economy (Table 11 ). The number of self-employed reached an all-time high of 2.65 million in the third quarter of 2007, but decreased in the first quarter of 2008 to 2.59 million. Over the past decade, the number of self-employed workers increased by 11 percent, while the growth rate of the overall labour force was 23 percent. Slightly more than one third of self-employed workers were female — the share of female self-employment rose steadily from 1976 to 1998, from 26 percent to 36 percent, and has remained at around 35 percent since 1999.
| Year and Quarter | Total Self-Employment | Self-Employment as % of Total Employment | Male Self-Employed | % of Self-Employed | Female Self-Employed | % of Self-Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
[Description of Table 11]
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, April 2008. Note 1: Figures for men and women may not add up to total due to rounding. Note 2: Differences between these data and those published in previous versions of Key Small Business Statistics are due to revisions made to data from the Labour Force Survey. |
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| 1997 | 2349.4 | 17.1 | 1522.2 | 65 | 827.2 | 35 |
| 1998 | 2405.7 | 17.1 | 1550.6 | 64 | 855.1 | 36 |
| 1999 | 2433.0 | 16.9 | 1582.8 | 65 | 850.2 | 35 |
| 2000 | 2373.7 | 16.1 | 1538.7 | 65 | 835.1 | 35 |
| 2001 | 2276.7 | 15.2 | 1503.3 | 66 | 773.4 | 34 |
| 2002 | 2314.5 | 15.1 | 1499.7 | 65 | 814.7 | 35 |
| 2003 | 2401.8 | 15.3 | 1571.1 | 65 | 830.7 | 35 |
| 2004 | 2453.4 | 15.4 | 1614.5 | 66 | 838.9 | 34 |
| 2005 | 2511.6 | 15.5 | 1645.6 | 66 | 866.0 | 34 |
| 2006 | 2498.0 | 15.2 | 1621.4 | 65 | 876.6 | 35 |
| 2007 | 2615.0 | 15.5 | 1703.2 | 65 | 911.9 | 35 |
| 2004 Q1 | 2393.7 | 15.4 | 1564.9 | 65 | 828.7 | 35 |
| Q2 | 2461.7 | 15.4 | 1621.4 | 66 | 840.3 | 34 |
| Q3 | 2487.1 | 15.3 | 1649.5 | 66 | 837.6 | 34 |
| Q4 | 2470.9 | 15.4 | 1622.1 | 66 | 848.8 | 34 |
| 2005 Q1 | 2470.8 | 15.7 | 1613.1 | 65 | 857.8 | 35 |
| Q2 | 2505.0 | 15.4 | 1636.3 | 65 | 868.7 | 35 |
| Q3 | 2521.2 | 15.3 | 1664.5 | 66 | 856.7 | 34 |
| Q4 | 2549.1 | 15.7 | 1668.6 | 65 | 880.6 | 35 |
| 2006 Q1 | 2508.3 | 15.6 | 1640.2 | 65 | 868.1 | 35 |
| Q2 | 2491.7 | 15.0 | 1611.2 | 65 | 880.5 | 35 |
| Q3 | 2491.8 | 14.9 | 1609.2 | 65 | 882.6 | 35 |
| Q4 | 2500.1 | 15.1 | 1625.1 | 65 | 875.1 | 35 |
| 2007 Q1 | 2539.9 | 15.5 | 1656.0 | 65 | 884.0 | 35 |
| Q2 | 2637.0 | 15.6 | 1721.6 | 65 | 915.5 | 35 |
| Q3 | 2651.2 | 15.5 | 1719.9 | 65 | 931.3 | 35 |
| Q4 | 2631.8 | 15.5 | 1715.0 | 65 | 916.8 | 35 |
| 2008 Q1 | 2592.6 | 15.4 | 1703.4 | 66 | 889.2 | 34 |
Table 12 shows a breakdown of the self-employed in five categories from 1997 to 2007. On average in 2007, of 2.6 million self-employed workers, 66.3 percent had no paid help, 32.7 percent worked with paid help and 1 percent were unpaid family workers. Self-employed workers with and without paid help are further categorized according to whether their businessesFootnote 8 were incorporated or not. Of those who worked without paid help, 1.3 million or 74 percent were unincorporated in 2007; this category accounted for half the total number of self-employed in Canada. In the category with paid help, 70 percent were incorporated. Therefore, the preferred choice of those with paid help is to be incorporated, while those without paid help are mostly unincorporated.
The number of self-employed persons with incorporated businesses increased 2.7 percent annually, on average, over the past 10 years (not shown), compared with 1.0 percent for all self-employed. However, there was a great difference in the pattern of growth between incorporated businesses with paid help and those without. The number of incorporated businesses with paid help grew 1.1 percent annually, on average, between 1997 and 2007. In contrast, the number of incorporated self-employed persons without paid help increased rapidly between 1997 and 2007, with average annual increases of 5.4 percent.
The total number of self-employed workers in Canada increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent between 1977 and 2007 but, as shown in Figure 7, the various categories of self-employed workers experienced slightly different growth rates over that period. For example, in the last two decades, there was negative growth in the category of unincorporated self-employed individuals with paid help. The annual average growth over the entire period was 0.2 percent. The highest growth for self-employed workers without paid help occurred over the 1987–1997 period (1.7 percent). For those with paid help, the highest growth occurred during the 1977–1987 period.
[Description of Figure 7]Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, April 2008.
Self-employed workers owning incorporated businesses registered the highest growth rates — 7.7 percent for businesses without paid employees, followed by incorporated businesses with paid employees at 3.2 percent. A third category also showed a relative increase in importance — 2.6 percent for self-employed workers owning unincorporated businesses with no paid employees.
Two categories experienced growth rates below the 2.5-percent average, which means their relative importance in terms of self-employed workers diminished. These categories were self-employed workers owning unincorporated businesses with paid employees (0.2 percent) and unpaid family workers (-4.9 percent).
Footnote 8. Although the term "incorporated activities" generally refers to businesses, this is not necessarily the case when we speak of "unincorporated activities." According to the definition used by Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey, self-employed workers involved in unincorporated activities are "active owners of a business, farm or unincorporated professional office and independent workers who do not have a business as such (child-care workers, newspaper delivery agents, etc.)."