The Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, a collaborative effort between Statistics Canada and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, was released Wednesday and highlights some of the challenges facing the economy amid the COVID-19 shutdown.
From April 3-24, 2020, representatives from 12.6K+ businesses visited StatCan's website and took part in the online questionnaire about how COVID-19 is affecting their business.
Select findings:
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%
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
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