Canadian Small Businesses’ Employees and Owners during COVID-19

Arbeitspapier

Canadian employers are largely small businesses. Their relevance for job creation and labour demand is integral for policymakers concerned with adverse labour market outcomes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) we document how the self-employed, which we interpret as small business owners, and employees of small businesses are being affected by COVID-19. We find large decreases in the number of small business owners, the number of employed, and in hours worked, from February to July 2020. We also find large labour market impact on small business employees. Our research confirms increasing employment, hours worked, and small business ownership as provinces began reopening their economies in May to July 2020. Still, these improvements are often below pre-March 2020 trends with some demographic groups, such as female and immigrant small business owners, having considerably worse outcomes than their respective counterparts.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: GLO Discussion Paper ; No. 650

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Entrepreneurship ; Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
• Subject: COVID-19 ; Self-employed workers ; Entrepreneurship ; Employment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Beland, Louis-Philippe ; Fakorede, Oluwatobi ; Mikola, Derek
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Global Labor Organization (GLO)
• (where): Essen
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/223313
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET