Canada Net Business Openings (Monthly)

## What this measures

Openings less closures of businesses with employees in Canada each month (canada.business.openings − canada.business.closings), seasonally adjusted, since January 2015. Statistics Canada counts businesses with at least one employee, from payroll deduction records. An opening is a business with employees this month that had none last month; a closing is the reverse. Openings include businesses reopening after a temporary closure, and closings include temporary ones.

## Why it matters

One number for whether the stock of employer businesses is growing or shrinking. It turned deeply negative in March and April 2020 and positive again when the economy reopened.

## How to read it

Above zero, more businesses started paying employees than stopped. Read three-month averages; one month moves by a few thousand on revisions alone.

## What it does not say

These are experimental estimates: they are revised, and a closing can be temporary. Businesses with no employees (the self-employed) are not counted. The counts are not comparable with U.S. establishment births and deaths (annual, per location, permanent only).

## Source

Palanor calculation from Statistics Canada table 33-10-0270-01 (vectors v1203704156, v1203704157, v1203704159). Source: Statistics Canada. Reproduced and distributed on an "as is" basis with the permission of Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada Open Licence.