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Canadian survey on business conditions during COVID-19
May 3, 2020In early April 2020, Retail Council of Canada partnered with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Business Resilience Network and Statistics Canada in the release of an in-depth business survey, the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, that asked businesses from across Canada to provide their input on the pandemic’s effects on their business – indicating conditions pre-pandemic, current status and looking forward. The results have been compiled and Statistics Canada has released the data this morning – and there is lots of it! Over 13,000 businesses completed the survey so that is a lot of data to sort through – based on region, sector, business type, ownership and more. You can read the Chamber’s news release for additional information and a quick summary of the results.
Select findings examining the urgency of business stabilization include:
How much of a cash buffer did businesses have going into COVID-19
- 42.2% couldn’t operate longer than 60 days without a source of revenue
- 51.1% couldn’t operate longer than 90 days without a source of revenue
Extent to which businesses have experienced a decrease in demand
- 80.9% have experienced a medium to high drop in demand for services or products
Change in business revenue in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019
- 10.5% experienced an increase in revenue
- 14.3% saw no change in revenue
- 17.9% experienced a decrease in revenue of up to 20%
- 53.5% experienced a decrease in revenue of over 20%
Length of time businesses can remain partially or fully open amid social distancing measures
- 17.5% say no amount of time amid social distancing
- 22.2% say they could open for no longer than 3 months amid social distancing
- 11.9% say they could open between 3 and 6 months amid social distancing
- Only 32.1% say they could remain open longer than 6 months amid social distancing
Staffing decisions taken as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
- 38.1% have reduced staff hours or shifts
- 40.5% have laid off staff
Select findings exploring the resiliency of Canadian businesses include:
- 17.9% of businesses have altered methods of production
- 35.4% of businesses have altered products or services offered
- 45.4% of businesses are using new methods to interact with customers
- 44.5% of businesses are testing working from home
- 11.6% of businesses are testing e-commerce
- 10.6% are trying new staff training
- 62.3% of businesses say they can return to a state of normal operations within one month of social distancing measures being removed
