Business and consumer services

Description:

Leasing, rather than buying, is increasingly becoming an attractive option for both consumers and businesses. This article looks at the industries that rent or lease: automobiles and trucks; and machinery and equipment. In some instances, the focus turns to the sub-industries comprising these broader industry groups. The article quantitatively examines the industries' financial performances, and employment, remuneration, and output levels from 1991 to 1995. Also examined is the effect of firm size on outcomes in these industries.

Description:

Since the introduction of casinos and video lottery terminals in the 1990s, growth in gambling has outstripped that of most other industries. This article updates an earlier examination of employment and government revenue for this industry, as well as average household spending on games of chance.

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The significance of business services in the economy and their role in fostering competitiveness has attracted considerable attention in recent years. This paper, the first of a two-part series, examines the evolution of business services in Canada over the last three decades. It draws a demographic profile of this group from an industrial and a geographical perspective, and analyzes its size, structure, output and growth, R & D involvement as well as the sources of demand and supply of business service commodities.

The industrial group is made up of a large number of small firms that produce services to be used primarily as intermediate inputs in the production processes of other industries. Business services industries are labour intensive with high value-added and are predominantly located in metropolitan areas. Their growth has outpaced the economy average by a huge margin. Despite the high level of exports, increasing deficits characterize international trade in business service commodities. Business services account for a significant proportion of R & D performed in Canada. They are not immune to economic downturns.

Description:

This paper is the second of a two-part series on business services and their role in the Canadian economy. It provides a detailed industrial and geographical profile of employment, illustrates its composition and major characteristics and analyzes its sources of growth by type, gender, occupation, education and other features.

Business services is a dynamic sector with impressive employment growth, considerably higher than the economy average. Growth has been particularly strong in self-employment, part-time and female employment. Much of the growth in employment originates in the computer services industry. The proportion of managerial and professional positions has been growing relative to clerical ones. Employment is heavily concentrated in urban centres. Individuals employed in these industries are better educated and better paid than the average worker.

Description:

The funeral services industry touches, inevitably, on everyone's life. In Canada, this is reflected to a great degree by aspects of the industry's economic performance, as well as by the numerous regulations regarding public health and consumer protection. This paper draws from a number of sources to offer a wide-ranging picture of the industry and an outlook toward its future.The paper begins with an outline of the regulatory environment within which the Canadian funeral services industry operates. It then analyses its financial structure.

The industry is characterized by above-average profitability and revenue growth, as well as by low rates of exit and entry and rather limited concentration. The section on industry prices illustrates the potential for deriving average funeral costs from aggregate industry data. This is followed by a brief exposition of market demand, which in this industry's context, is measured by the number of deaths. Demographic projections conclusively point to a robust economic outlook for funeral services, particularly in light of the ageing of the Canadian population.

Description:

The new reality in the telecommunication service industry is one of competition among service suppliers for market shares. This paper analyzes and presents information from a survey on the demand and diffusion of telecommunication services by Business Services firms.

Businesses care very much about the prices of these services. At the same time they care about the range and the quality of services offered. They believe that use of such services is indispensable in dealing with their clients and improves their productivity. Currently, the service used the most is facsimile. Large firms use telecommunication services more extensively than others and they are taking full advantage of competition. 61% of the large firms surveyed use at least one alternative supplier. Firms in the computer services industry have a different pattern of use than other industries in the group. There is potential for growth in the use of all services.

Description:

The insurance industry in Canada is at a crossroads. The regulatory authorities are currently exploring whether or not to allow banks to sell insurance products. To gain a better understanding of the impact of such a decision, this paper examines the Canadian property and casualty insurance industry, during the 1987-1992 period. Emphasis is placed on the distinction between the direct insurance and reinsurance markets. The paper also analyzes the industry's market concentration by product line and compares the behaviour and performance of Canadian and foreign-controlled firms.

The analysis reveals a generally competitive market, in which many small firms co-exist with some very large ones. Foreign-controlled firms outnumber their Canadian counterparts, but are on average smaller and account for only one-quarter of the market. There is a substantial number of firms that specialize in a single product. These firms tend to operate in the largest markets, where they can spread the risk either among a large pool of customers, or through reinsurance. No correlation was found between firm size and efficiency.

Description:

Temporary help is an integral part of the workforce strategy of many businesses. Temporary help workers may be on the payroll of the organization where they work or they may be employees of the firms in personnel supplier industry, placed in the organization under contract.

The study is an analysis of the personnel supplier industry, commonly known as the temporary help industry. The paper begins with a discussion of the special nature of the industry's product. The role of temporary help in the labour market is compared to just-in-time inventory technology in material handling and bridge financing in the financial markets. It then analyzes the industry's structure in terms of occupations and skill levels, degree of specialization and its determinants, competition at the industry and product levels, major markets and trade. Finally, the growth and cycles in the industry are analyzed in terms of the business demographics, highlighting the effect of firm size and vintage.

Description:

This paper describes the financial intermediation activity of insurance companies and its similarities to the activity of the other financial intermediaries. The financial intermediation activity encompasses the issue of financial instruments such as claims, the use of the funds collected to make loans and the acquisition of a variety of other financial assets. An insurance policy is a claim on the insurance company, albeit a contingent one, just as a bank deposit is a claim on the bank.

Several major trends seem to be emerging regarding the product mix of these companies. With regard to life insurance, the decline of whole life policies in favour of term policies for almost 20 years seems to be irreversible. Furthermore, there has been a substantial increase in the share of annuities (especially individual annuities) at the expense of life insurance.

The paper also outlines a cross country comparison of life and non-life insurance industry asset structures. Each type of company establishes its own investment strategy to suit its own needs: life insurance companies prefer long-term assets with returns that maintain purchasing power, and non-life insurance companies generally prefer more liquid assets. Regulation also seems to affect the asset structure at the national and international levels. For a number of countries, including Canada, regulation seems to favour investments in less risky assets, such as government bonds, instead of in the stock market.

Description:

This article utilizes information on business startups and closures to examine change and volatility in the service economy. Industries on the cutting edge of technology experience more volatility and are also the fastest growing. Many firms enter the business services and communication industries to seize opportunities offered by technological advances but many are also forced out by the stiff competition. The information-intensive industries (software developers and advertising services firms) are almost twice as volatile as the knowledge-based industries. The latter have low business entry and exit rates because the amount of human capital required to set up a professional practice is large and takes years to acquire.

Description:

Amusement and recreation, e-commerce sales, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 7131 Amusement parks and arcades, (NAICS) 7139 Other amusement and recreation industries, which includes all members under Sales, (dollars X 1,000,000), annual (percent), for five years of data.

Description:

Accounting Services Price Index (ASPI) by North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). Annual data is available from 1999. The table includes data for the most recent reference period and the last four periods. The current base period for the index is (2010=100).

Description:

Accounting Services Price Index (ASPI) by North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS). Data is available from 1999. The table presents year-to-year percentage changes for various aggregation levels. The current base period for the index is (2010=100).  

Description: The summary statistics by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) which include: operating revenue (dollars x 1,000,000), operating expenses (dollars x 1,000,000), salaries wages and benefits (dollars x 1,000,000), and operating profit margin (by percent), of accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services (NAICS 54121), annual, for five years of data.

Description: The operating expenses by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) which include all members under industry expenditures, for accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services (NAICS 54121), annual (percentage), for five years of data.

Description: The sales by type of client based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) which include all members under type of client, accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services (NAICS 54121), annual (percentage), for five years of data.

Description: The sales by type of goods and services for Canada, provinces and territories, for three years of data.

Description: The summary statistics by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) which include: operating revenue (dollars x 1,000,000), operating expenses (dollars x 1,000,000), salaries wages and benefits (dollars x 1,000,000), and operating profit margin (by percent), of commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing (NAICS 5324), annual, for five years of data.

Description: The operating expenses by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) which include all members under industry expenditures, for commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing (NAICS 5324), annual (percent), for five years of data.

Description: The sales, by type of client based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) which include all members under type of client, for commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing (NAICS 5324), annual (percent), for five years of data.

Description:

The Canadian economy is characterized by the size of the service sector. Elsewhere, the research and development (R&D) activity contributes to the growth of the economy. Paradoxically, R&D is sometime considered as an activity performed by the manufacturing sector. This article sheds light on the importance of efforts dedicated to R&D in the business services sector.

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The purpose of this study is to address the question: What are the differences between Canada's domestic resort market and the non-resort market?

Description:

This article examines household spending on entertainment services in 2001, focussing on differences in spending by household type and income. Entertainment services industries rely on spending by various types of households. Knowledge about the characteristics of consumers and their spending patterns enables entertainment service providers to market their products to meet the needs of the current market, and to develop programs to attract new consumers.

Previous research looking at differences in spending on entertainment services has shown that consumer preferences vary across socio-economic factors such as income, household type and geographical region. Similar to entertainment spending patterns in 1997, there was evidence that Canadians continued to 'cocoon' in 2001, spending more on entertainment inside the home and less outside the home.

Spending on entertainment services also varied by level of household income. It is not surprising that both the percentage of households that spent on entertainment and the average amount spent increased with income. Households in the highest income quintile accounted for a disproportionate share of the consumer market for entertainment services in 2001.

The presence of children in the household made a real difference in spending patterns. Households with children represented the highest percentage of reporting households in seven of the eight categories of entertainment spending and, on average, they spent the most in six of the eight categories.

Description:

The need for Information Technology (IT) support has never been greater than it is today. Businesses, institutions, government and individuals all rely heavily on IT networks to convey information, process data, and provide or access services.

This paper describes how a leading IT industry, including computer systems design and related services, has responded to the mounting demand for IT services in Canada. Structural differences between small and large system design firms are explored and data describing industry growth rates, export markets, and employment characteristics are examined.

Description:

Services constitute the single most important industry in Canada's economy, with 68% of total gross domestic product, 75% of employment and 53% of consumer spending. However, this industry is not widely perceived as being Canada's spearhead of research and development (R&D), a role more traditionally assigned to the manufacturing sector. Still, services are becoming an increasingly important force in R&D, and this is why we should reconsider the true role played by R&D in the service sector. This article, in fact, sets out to quantify R&D activities within the service sector.

Here are some highlights of this exploratory study:

- In 2002, the commercial service sector was responsible for 28.5% of all R&D expenditures for the economy as a whole.

- In 2000, 36.6% of all personnel assigned full time to R&D worked in the commercial service sector.

- Quantification of the amounts spent on R&D from within the service sector does not necessarily correspond to traditional industrial classifications. For example, R&D is primarily performed in such sectors as biotechnology, software, telecommunications, the environment and logistics, which are not included in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) classification scheme.

- Several service sector activities are very labour intensive and require highly skilled R&D workers. For example, of all employees performing R&D in the field of biotechnology, 23% hold doctorates or master's degrees.

Description:

Even though all of the campgrounds and outfitters combined were self-categorized as midscale accommodations, 87% of the campgrounds catered to an economy/midscale market while around 84% of the outfitters were midscale/upscale. Only outfitters derived more revenue from packaged vacations than from guest units. Americans made up the greatest number of those visiting Canada's hunting and fishing camps while campgrounds generated most of their business from Canadian travellers. Canada's pristine wilderness draws foreign travellers who want to experience world-class hunting and fishing expeditions.

Description:

The need for Information Technology (IT) support has never been greater than it is today. Businesses, institutions, government and individuals, all rely heavily on IT networks to convey information, process data and provide, or access, services.

This paper focusses on describing how a leading IT industry, Computer Systems Design and Related Services, has responded to the mounting demand for IT services in Canada. The paper explores structural differences between small and large system design firms and examines data describing industry growth rates, export markets and employment characteristics.

Description:

This article analyzes the performance of three services industries which grew strongly in 2001 in spite of the general economic slowdown in that year. The industries analysed are Engineering services, Commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing, as well as Surveying and mapping services. In all three industries revenues from natural resources projects, especially oil and gas, were high.

Description:

Today, the phrases 'Fierce competition' and 'Internet access provision' are synonymous. The vastly changing Internet-access market is no longer the domain of its original pioneers - the so called 'traditional' Internet service providers (ISPs). As cable firms, telecommunication carriers and, more recently, wireless carriers flood the market, the business challenges facing firms classified to the ISP industry continue to mount.

Utilizing data from the 2001 Annual Survey of Internet Service Providers and Related Services, this paper examines some of these challenges by exploring various industry characteristics in conjunction with important issues for future growth. The primary focus of this paper revolves is the industry's perception of factors that impede the growth of businesses and highlights the significant distinguishing characteristics among small, medium and large-sized firms. Examination of responses from firms revealed five principal obstacles to growth: 1) competition; 2) cost-related impediments revolving around both ends of the ISP business, their links to consumers and their links to the Internet; 3) delays in obtaining facilities from suppliers; 4) access to financing; and 5) access to markets.

To provide additional context to the main analysis, the paper also contains background information on the demand and supply side of the Internet-access market, financial performance analysis and structure of the ISP industry.

Description:

This document provides cross-sectional analyses on the economic structure and operations of Canadian hotels. It examines key performance indicators and supplies descriptive analyses on the distribution of hotel revenues and expenses. The document also looks at some of the characteristics of Canadian hotels and describes the composition of their clientele.

Description:

This technical guide describes the methodological details for the Architectural, Engineering and Related Services Price Index (AESPI). The document includes information about the purpose of the index, data sources, and index estimation and aggregation.

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This technical guide describes the methodological details for the Accounting Services Price Index (ASPI). The document includes information about the purpose of the index, data sources, and index estimation and aggregation.

Description:

This publication outlines the conceptual and statistical framework of the services sector in the accounts. The methodology and data sources used to calculate estimates of services in the current-price input-output accounts are described. Specific sources and methods are outlined for determining inputs, outputs and gross domestic product of service industries in the business sector.

Description: The Consulting Engineering Services Price Index series (CESPI) is an annual survey of consulting engineers in Canada, collecting financial and wage information that is used to produce price indexes measuring changes in prices for consulting engineer services.

Description: The Informatics Professional Services Price Index measures annual price changes for various informatics services such as data processing and hosting; general purpose software design; computer systems design; and custom software design services.

Description: The Accounting Services Price Index (ASPI) collects information on the price of several accounting services such as auditing, taxation, and bookkeeping. From this data, price indexes are constructed measuring changes in these prices over time.

Description: The Traveller Accommodation Services Price Index is a monthly series measuring the price change for short-term accommodation services. Data are collected for leisure and business clients and are used to estimate monthly and quarterly price indexes for the short-term traveller accommodation services industry.

Description: This survey collects the financial and operating data needed to develop national and regional economic policies and programs.

Description: This survey collects the financial and operating data needed to develop national and regional economic policies and programs.

Description: This survey provides information to measure the economic performance and health of the Food Services and Drinking Places Industry in the Canadian economy.