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July 04, 2022BUSINESS OPENING AND CLOSING, MARCH 2022 Statistics Canada released updated data on monthly business openings and closures for March 2022. The data was not adjusted for seasonal patterns.
A business will be classified as 'opening' if it had no employment in the previous month and then has employment in the next month. A business is 'closing' if it had employment in the previous month and no employment in the current month. For opening and closing, the reason could be a permanent change (i.e. business exit) or temporary for reasons such as seasonal operations, capital maintenance, restructuring or the COVID-19 situation. Continuing business are those that had employment in both the current and previous month. Active businesses are the sum of continuing and opening business in the current month.
Nationally, the number of active businesses declined in March 2022, posting the second consecutive decline. The decline is mainly driven by lower business opening rate as the business closure rate remained the same.
The number of active businesses in Nova Scotia increased 0.2% from February 2022 to March 2022 (20,371 active businesses). Nationally, active businesses were down 0.2%. Seven provinces reported lower active businesses in March 2022 than in February 2022, with Saskatchewan and Manitoba reporting the largest decreases. Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia reported the largest gains.
Compared with February 2020, the number of active businesses was up 1.8% for Nova Scotia in March 2022. Nationally, active businesses were 1.0% higher compared to February 2020. Eight provinces reported more active businesses, with British Columbia reporting the largest gain. Newfoundland and Labrador saw the largest decline in active business comparing March 2022 with February 2020.
The number of active businesses in Halifax was up 8.8% from March 2020 to February 2022. Among cities (Census Metropolitan Areas), only five report fewer active businesses from March 2020 to February 2022: St. John's, Saguenay, Belleville Sudbury and Thunder Bay. The cities with the largest rises in the number of active businesses were Windsor and Peterborough.
The rate at which business either opened, continued or closed can be examined to see how the number of active businesses has changed. The calculation for the opening, continuing and closure rates are based on the number of active businesses in the previous month.
Most businesses continue operating each month. In March 2022, Nova Scotia and national business continuing rate was 95.4%.
Nova Scotia's business opening rate was 4.6% as of March 2022 (4.6% nationally).
Nova Scotia's business closing rate declined to 4.4% in March 2022 (4.8% nationally).
Compared with the February 2020 (pre-pandemic) benchmark, the number of active Nova Scotia businesses in March 2022 was lower in mining/oil/gas (a small number to start with), forestry, fishing and hunting, wholesale trade, and retail trade. From February 2020 to March 2022, there were notable percentage increases in the number of active businesses in utilities (also starting from a small number), professional/technical services, construction, manufacturing, accomodation and food, and real estate and rental and leasing.
Nationally, the number of active businesses was down for many business sector industries, with the largest increases in professional, scientific and technical services, information and cultural industries and construction. The largest declines were reported in mining/oil/gas, personal/repair services, and wholesale trade.
Statistics Canada has broken out specific data for tourism-related industries. This shows that the number of active tourism-related businesses was up 3.3% in Nova Scotia from February 2020 to March 2022. Travel services and transportation are now the only tourism-related industries to report lower active businesses compared to before the pandemic in Nova Scotia. Nationally the decline was 2.4% with the largest decline in travel services.
Health care and social assistance reported the largest increase in the number of businesses from February 2022 to March 2022. Transportation and warehousing reported the largest decrease.
The source data is seasonally adjusted. The data may not aggregate due to firms being classified into multiple industry or geography.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 33-10-0270-01 Experimental estimates for business openings and closures for Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas; Methodology: Business Opening and Closing
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