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Currently displaying information released on: November, 2024
BUSINESS OPENING AND CLOSING, AUGUST 2024
Monthly (August 2024 vs July 2024, seasonally adjusted)
The number of active businesses in Nova Scotia declined by 0.18% from July 2024 to August 2024, falling to 20,928 active businesses.
Nationally, active businesses were down by 0.1%. Seven provinces reported lower numbers of active businesses in Augst 2024 compared with July 2024. The largest decline was reported in New Brunswick while Prince Edward Island, Québec and Manitoba had the only increases.
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 August 2024, Nova Scotia's business continuing rate was 95.4%, above the national average (95.3%). Québec reported the highest business continuing rate (96.4%) while Alberta (94.7%) reported the lowest.
Nova Scotia's business opening rate was 4.5% in August 2024, below the national average at 4.6%. Prince Edward Island and Alberta had the highest business opening rates (5.3%) while Québec had the lowest (3.5%).
Nova Scotia's business closing rate was 4.8% in August 2024, same as the national average. Alberta reported the highest business closing rates (5.4%) while Québec had the lowest business closing rate (3.6%).
Year-over-year (August 2024 vs August 2023)
Compared with August 2023, the number of active businesses was up 1.06% for Nova Scotia. Nationally, active businesses were up 0.15% compared to August 2023. Alberta (1.44%) and Nova Scotia reported the highest increases in active businesses since August 2023. New Brunswick, Québec and Ontario 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 August 2023 to August 2024.
Out of 35 CMAs, 22 reported increases in active businesses over the past 12 months. Calgary reported the largest rises in the number of active businesses while Guelph, Windsor, and Barrie reported the largest declines.
Compared with August 2023, 8 sectors saw an increase in active businesses in Nova Scotia in August 2024 with the steepest decline in forestry/fishing and finance/insurance/management. The number of active businesses was up most in utilities (a small number of businesses to begin with) followed by construction and admin/support.
Nationally, the number of active businesses was down for 10 of the 16 business sector industries, with the largest declines in transportation, wholesale and forestry/fishing. The largest gains were in utilities and arts/entertainment/recreation.
Statistics Canada has broken out specific data for tourism-related industries. Compared with August 2023, the number of active tourism-related businesses rose 2.3% in Nova Scotia as of August 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 1.2% from August 2023 to August 2024. There was growth in all sectors except accommodation, with recreation/entertainment and food/beverage 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 also 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 has been decreases in active businesses for personal/repair, accommodation/food services and arts/recreation in recent months.
Retail and wholesale businesses have declined in the past two years with a small rise in August 2024.
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 recent months.
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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