Economic and Social Reports, September 2021

Released: 2021-09-22

The September 2021 issue of Economic and Social Reports contains four articles.

Two articles present findings on rates and characteristics of businesses owned by immigrant entrepreneurs and second-generation Canadians.

Business ownership among second-generation Canadians lower than that of immigrants

The research article "Immigrant and second-generation entrepreneurs in Canada: An intergenerational comparison of business ownership" addresses the data gap on business ownership by second-generation Canadians—individuals born in Canada with immigrant parents.

Using a new dataset that links individual- and business-level administrative data to microdata from the 2016 Census of Population, the authors found that the second generation's business ownership rates were lower than those of immigrants but higher than those of third-plus generations—individuals with Canadian-born parents.

In 2016, 11.9% of immigrants aged 25 to 69 were either owners of an incorporated business with employees or primarily unincorporated self-employed individuals, compared with 10.1% for the second generation and 8.4% for the third-plus generations.

There was little difference between immigrants and the second generation in the rate of ownership of private incorporated companies with employees (5.2% versus 5.0%, respectively). By contrast, even after controlling for the observable differences, immigrants were more likely to be primarily unincorporated self-employed (6.9% compared with 5.3%), which may be related to their difficulty finding suitable paid employment. Higher educational attainment tended to increase the likelihood of owning a private incorporated company but decreased the probability of being primarily unincorporated self-employed for all generational groups.

Overall, ownership rates and types of businesses owned by the second generation more closely resembled those of third-plus generations than those of immigrants. Private incorporated businesses owned by second-generation Canadians were more likely to be in the professional, scientific and technical services sector (18.2%) or the health care and social assistance sector (13.6%) than the other generational groups.

A short spotlight article, "Immigrant entrepreneurs in Canada: Highlights from recent studies," reveals several recent findings from studies related to immigrant business ownership in Canada and offers a brief discussion of possible reasons behind some of the findings.

Differences in career advancement and in achieving desired level of education may contribute to the gender wage gap

Two other articles look at factors that may contribute to the gender wage gap.

The article "Gender-related differences in the career advancement of women in Canada," based on data from the 2016 General Social Survey – Canadians at Work and Home, compares the career advancement of women and men. For instance, women were less likely to receive training paid for by their employer in the 12 months preceding the survey. However, it is not known if this is because employers offered women less paid training or if the women chose not to participate. In addition, for those who received such training paid by their employer, women were less likely than men to report feeling that it made their job more secure or improved their prospects for future employment.

The article "Gender-related differences in desired level of educational attainment among students in Canada" shows that, overall, women were more likely than men to choose a bachelor's degree or above as the highest level of education desired. However, at the same time, more women than men report that they encountered obstacles that prevented them from achieving the highest level of education desired.

Products

The September 2021 issue of Economic and Social Reports, Vol. 1, no. 9 (Catalogue number36280001), is now available. This issue contains the articles "Immigrant entrepreneurs in Canada: Highlights from recent studies," "Gender-related differences in the career advancement of women in Canada," "Immigrant and second-generation entrepreneurs in Canada: An intergenerational comparison of business ownership," and "Gender-related differences in desired level of educational attainment among students in Canada."

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