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December 20, 2024BUSINESS OPENING AND CLOSING, SEPTEMBER 2024 Monthly (September 2024 vs August 2024, seasonally adjusted)
The number of active businesses in Nova Scotia rose by 0.27% from August 2024 to September, rising to 21,012 active businesses.
Nationally, active businesses were up by 0.16%. All provinces except Prince Edward Island reported higher numbers of active businesses in September 2024 compared with August 2024. The largest rise was reported in New Brunswick.
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 or restructuring. 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.
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 September 2024, Nova Scotia's business continuing rate was 95.5%, above the national average (95.3%). Québec reported the highest business continuing rate (96.4%) while Prince Edward Island (94.6%) reported the lowest.
Nova Scotia's business opening rate was 4.7% in September 2024, below the national average at 4.8%. Alberta had the highest business opening rate (5.5%) while Québec had the lowest (3.8%).
Nova Scotia's business closing rate was 4.4% in September 2024, same as the national average. Prince Edward Island reported the highest business closing rate (5.6%) while Québec had the lowest business closing rate (3.6%).
Year-over-year (September 2024 vs September 2023)
Compared with September 2023, the number of active businesses was up 1.43% for Nova Scotia. Nationally, active businesses were up 0.45% compared to September 2023. Alberta (1.67%) and Nova Scotia reported the highest increases in active businesses since September 2023. Prince Edward Island and Québec reported the only year-over-year decline in active businesses.
The number of active businesses in the Halifax and East Hants Census Metropolitan Area was up 1.9% from September 2023 to September 2024.
Out of 35 CMAs, 24 reported increases in active businesses over the past 12 months. Calgary reported the largest rises in the number of active businesses while Greater Sudbury and Barrie reported the largest declines.
Compared with September 2023, eight sectors saw an increase in active businesses in Nova Scotia in September 2024 with the largest increase (in percentage terms) in administrative/support services. The steepest declines were in forestry/fishing, manufacturing and finance/insurance/management.
Nationally, the number of active businesses was down for nine of the 16 business sector industries, with the largest declines in transportation, wholesale and forestry/fishing. The largest gain was in arts/entertainment/recreation.
Statistics Canada has broken out specific data for tourism-related industries. Compared with September 2023, the number of active tourism-related businesses rose 1.6% in Nova Scotia as of September 2024, with gains in all sectors. Travel services reported the fastest year-over-year growth in active tourism businesses in Nova Scotia.
Nationally the number of tourism-related businesses increased 1.1% from September 2023 to September 2024. There was growth in all sectors except accommodation, with recreation/entertainment and transportation reporting the largest gains.
Trends
There has been a downward trend in forestry/fishing active businesses, while mining/quarrying has renewed growth in active businesses in recent months. Utilities have been stable over the past year.
From 2020-2024, the number of active businesses in construction grew at a steady pace. Manufacturing businesses have remained stable for the past 3 years.
There have been small decreases in active businesses for personal/repair, accommodation/food services and arts/recreation in recent months, but these sectors have remained somewhat stable since 2023.
Retail and wholesale businesses have declined in the past two years.
Real estate/leasing and administrative/support/call centre active businesses grew in recent months. The number of active businesses in transportation has remained at similar levels since 2021.
Growth in professional/technical services active businesses has slowed in recent months after steady gains in the last two years. The decline in finance/insurance/management businesses has slowed down in recent months while the number of active businesses in information/culture has been stable.
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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