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Key Small Business Statistics - July 2009
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 2008, just over 5.2 million employees on payroll, or 48 percent of the total private sector labour force,Footnote 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 6.9 million, or 64 percent, of private sector employees covered by SEPH.
| Industry (Ranked by number of employees in small businesses) | Size of Business Enterprise (No. of Employees) | Total | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–4 | 5–19 | 20–49 | 50–99 | Small (<100) |
100–299 | 300–499 | Medium (100–499) |
Large (500+) |
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|
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH), April 2009, and calculations by Industry Canada. Industry data are classified in accordance with the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). * Industries in the goods-producing sector. They account for 26.0 percent of total employment in the private sector and 24.3 percent of employment in small businesses. 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. |
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| Retail Trade | 111 832 | 298 182 | 225 422 | 189 220 | 824 656 | 171 727 | 38 820 | 210 547 | 859 256 | 1 894 459 |
| Accommodation and Food | 47 396 | 238 943 | 245 111 | 172 560 | 704 010 | 138 453 | 42 464 | 180 917 | 193 670 | 1 078 596 |
| *Construction | 145 561 | 234 442 | 147 903 | 87 227 | 615 133 | 91 777 | 25 748 | 117 525 | 96 903 | 829 561 |
| *Manufacturing | 44 022 | 161 411 | 196 136 | 179 984 | 581 553 | 288 414 | 132 084 | 420 498 | 671 852 | 1 673 904 |
| Professional Services | 141 444 | 152 955 | 95 303 | 65 470 | 455 172 | 80 283 | 36 784 | 117 067 | 182 296 | 754 536 |
| Wholesale Trade | 53 550 | 143 068 | 118 116 | 86 697 | 401 431 | 108 973 | 37 877 | 146 850 | 210 071 | 758 352 |
| Other Services | 103 345 | 164 920 | 71 984 | 40 452 | 380 701 | 54 172 | 15 910 | 70 082 | 58 806 | 509 590 |
| Administration, Waste Management | 50 795 | 99 872 | 76 393 | 60 473 | 287 533 | 99 159 | 55 466 | 154 625 | 331 851 | 774 009 |
| Health2 | 66 768 | 93 556 | 28 220 | 7 739 | 196 284 | 1 881 | 832 | 2 713 | 21 234 | 220 231 |
| Transportation and Warehousing2 | 42 407 | 62 144 | 48 259 | 38 843 | 191 652 | 46 327 | 21 201 | 67 528 | 306 403 | 565 583 |
| Real Estate and Rental | 43 206 | 55 973 | 33 440 | 23 145 | 155 764 | 26 779 | 11 507 | 38 286 | 57 909 | 251 959 |
| Finance and Insurance | 30 306 | 43 830 | 37 064 | 33 736 | 144 936 | 49 162 | 24 518 | 73 680 | 437 778 | 656 395 |
| Arts, Entertainment and Recreation | 14 922 | 38 628 | 36 049 | 27 180 | 116 779 | 33 079 | 10 581 | 43 660 | 81 477 | 241 916 |
| Information and Cultural | 11 116 | 21 774 | 19 554 | 17 560 | 70 004 | 29 683 | 13 625 | 43 308 | 213 055 | 326 367 |
| *Mining | 9 580 | 15 555 | 13 320 | 11 033 | 49 488 | 20 570 | 13 223 | 33 793 | 118 944 | 202 225 |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises | 11 707 | 16 186 | 14 029 | 9 337 | 51 259 | 12 275 | 5 831 | 18 106 | 55 480 | 124 844 |
| *Forestry | 8 089 | 12 520 | 8 339 | 4 563 | 33 511 | 3 855 | 1 111 | 4 966 | 9 138 | 47 615 |
| *Utilities2 | 122 | 343 | 267 | 379 | 1 111 | 3 005 | 1 483 | 4 488 | 103 568 | 109 167 |
| Percent in Service-Producing Sector | 77.8 | 77.1 | 74.1 | 73.2 | 75.7 | 67.6 | 64.5 | 66.8 | 75.1 | 74.0 |
| Percent in Goods-Producing Sector | 22.2 | 22.9 | 25.9 | 26.8 | 24.3 | 32.4 | 35.5 | 33.2 | 24.9 | 26.0 |
| Industry Aggregate Total | 936 168 | 1 854 302 | 1 414 910 | 1 055 597 | 5 260 977 | 1 259 573 | 489 066 | 1 748 639 | 4 009 691 | 11 019 309 |
The distribution of employment by size of firm varies considerably across industries. As shown in Table 5 and Figure 4, small businesses account for over two thirds of employment in five industries: the (non-institutional) health care sector (89 percent), other services (75 percent), the construction industry (74 percent), forestry (70 percent), and accommodation and food (65 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 (0.82 million), accommodation and food (0.70 million), construction (0.62 million), manufacturing (0.58 million), professional services (0.45 million) and wholesale trade (0.40 million). These industries alone accounted for 68 percent of all jobs in small firms in Canada.
[Description of Figure 4]Source: Statistics Canada, Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH), April 2009, 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 4, 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.
Footnote 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 4 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.