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By David Opinko

74% of Canadian businesses expect to retain same number of employees

Nov 16, 2020 | 3:06 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Despite the upwards trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic and the faltering Canadian economy, most businesses anticipate that their current staffing levels will stay about where they are.

Between mid-September to late October, Stats Canada interviewed business owners for the latest edition of the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions.

Since the start of the pandemic, 36.5 per cent of companies had laid off at least one employee. Among those who had issued layoffs, almost two-thirds (64.3 per cent) gave pink slips to at least half of their workforce.

The hardest-hit sectors in terms of layoffs were arts, entertainment, and recreation (84 per cent of companies had issued layoffs), health care and social services (80.6 per cent), and food and accommodation (74 per cent).

Of the firms that laid staff off, just over half (53.8 per cent) have since hired back at least 50 per cent.

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Going forward, nearly three-quarters (74.1 per cent) of businesses surveyed expect their number of employees to remain the same over the next three months. 10.4 per cent believe their overall number of workers to decrease in that time.

Nearly one-third (30.8 per cent) of businesses reported that revenues in August were down 30 per cent or more from the same time last year.

This was felt the most in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector, where 46.9 per cent said this was the case.

To make up for lower sales, 18.1 per cent of companies look to increase the price of their products and services including 31.1 per cent of retail stores and 27.8 per cent of construction companies.

Other businesses have either experienced no changes to their revenues or have seen sales increase such as agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting (54.2 per cent), real estate (53.7 per cent), and finance and insurance (53 per cent).

For the three months ahead, 63.6 per cent of survey respondents expect their revenues to be higher than in the previous quarter. At least part of this is likely due to the holiday shopping season driving up demand for sectors like retail.

Expectations of number of employees employed by business or organization over the next three months, by sector, Canada, fall 2020. (Stats Canada)