The Business and Community Newsletter – August 2020

Feature article

2021 Census questionnaires

The 2021 Census of Population questionnaire and the 2021 Census of Agriculture questionnaire are available!

The 2021 Census of Population questionnaire has returning content from 2016 to allow for ongoing trend analysis, and it includes new questions to continue to measure the growing diversity of our communities and our country. For more than a century, the census has been the storyteller of our nation. Through good and challenging times, the census has been depicting Canada's changing mosaic—giving Canadians facts on where we came from, where we are, and where we are heading as a nation.

For more information about the 2021 Census content changes, methodology and decision-making process, please consult The road to the 2021 Census online.

The agency has also released a document outlining how it meticulously planned the census, entitled Painting a Portrait of Canada: The 2021 Census of Population. This new resource gives readers an exclusive and in-depth look at the census, its history, the laws that regulate it, how it is planned, data collection and analysis, and the agency's modernization agenda.

Distributions of household economic accounts for income, consumption, saving and wealth of Canadian households, 2019

Distributions of Household Economic Accounts provides new data up to reference year 2019 and introduces new distributions by generation. Generation groups are defined as follows and are based on the birth year of the major income earner: pre-1946 for those born before 1946, baby boom (boomers) for those born between 1946 and 1964, Generation X for those born between 1965 and 1980 and millennials for those born after 1980. Although these estimates pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic, they provide an important benchmark to measure the full effect of the pandemic on the distributions of household wealth (net worth), income, consumption and net saving.

Generation X spends the most

On average, households in Generation X spent the most of any group, at $100,100 in 2019, followed by boomers, millennials, and finally the pre-1946 generation, at $54,300. While Generation X households spend more in most categories, boomers spend more on insurance and financial services, the pre-1946 generation spend more on health, and millennials spend more on education.

To find out more, consult Distributions of household economic accounts for income, consumption, saving and wealth of Canadian households, 2019.

Also, check out the data visualization product Distributions of Household Economic Accounts, Wealth: Interactive tool.

National tourism indicators, fourth quarter 2019 and first quarter 2020

Tourism spending in Canada fell 14.2% in the first quarter—the largest decline on record—in the wake of measures imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in March. Tourism gross domestic product (GDP) decreased 14.8%, while jobs attributable to tourism fell 6.5%, both also the largest quarterly declines since the data series began in 1986.

Spending was down in all major tourism categories, led by passenger air transport (-15.7%), food and beverage services (-15.5%) and accommodation (-13.8%). The decline in spending on passenger rail transport (-39.1%) was particularly severe, with rail blockades also resulting in a number of route cancellations earlier in the quarter.

For more details, check out the article National tourism indicators, fourth quarter 2019 and first quarter 2020, in The Daily.

Canadian Survey on Business Conditions (CSBC)

The second iteration of the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions collected data from businesses with employees on the current economic situation. The data are now available. The tables provide data at the national level, as well as by province and territory, by industrial sector, by employment size, by type of business and by majority ownership.

To find out more consult Canadian Survey on Business Conditions: Impact of COVID-19 on businesses in Canada, May 2020.

Labour Force Survey, July 2020

For the first time, this release also includes information on the labour market conditions of population groups designated as visible minorities.

Unemployment rate in July higher for South Asian, Arab and Black Canadians

A key aspect of the COVID-19 economic shutdown and the associated labour market shock has been unprecedented increases in unemployment, including a historically high unemployment rate observed in May (13.7%). After falling for two consecutive months, the unemployment rate in July was 10.9% for the population aged 15 and older.

The national unemployment rate disguises significant variation across population groups. When unadjusted for seasonality, the national unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 69 was 11.3% in July. Several groups had rates of joblessness significantly above this average, including South Asian (17.8%), Arab (17.3%), and Black (16.8%) Canadians. Among South Asian Canadians, women (20.4%) had a significantly higher unemployment rate than men (15.4%). Black women also had a higher unemployment rate than Black men (18.6% vs 15.1%).

For more details, check out the article Labour Force Survey, July 2020 in The Daily.

COVID-19: A data perspective

StatCan COVID-19: Data to Insights for a Better Canada: A series of articles on various subjects, which explore the impact of COVID-19 on the socio-economic landscape. New articles include:

• Trade in medical and protective goods, May 2020
  This article provides an overview of Canada's international merchandise trade in personal protective equipment in May 2020, as well as an update on exports and imports of medical and protective goods.
• Mental Health Status of Canadian Immigrants During the COVID-19 Pandemic
  This analytical article describes results from the crowdsourced survey Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians: Your mental health with a focus on the mental health of immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, this article explores the effects of social distancing on mental health, how the pandemic affects the symptoms of anxiety, and how perceived job and financial security affects mental health. This article also discusses the mental health differences between recent immigrants, established immigrants and Canadian born.
• Fear of COVID-19 related stigmatization
  As governments start to relax protective health measures and open up more businesses and recreational facilities, the amount of direct interactions with others will likely increase for most people. Many Canadians will likely feel relieved to get back to a more 'normal' life, but many others may be more fearful. Using data collected in mid-June, this article examines which groups of people feel more afraid of unwanted or intimidating acts as a result of perceived exposure risk to COVID-19.
• Perceptions of personal safety among population groups designated as visible minorities in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic
  Using data from a recent crowdsourcing initiative, this article examines the perceptions of personal safety from crime among visible minority groups in Canada since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also looks at their perceptions of incidents of harassment or attacks on the basis of race, ethnic origin, or skin colour in their neighbourhood.
• Gender differences in mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic
  This article compares the mental health outcomes (i.e., self-rated mental health, change in mental health since physical distancing began, severity of symptoms consistent with generalized anxiety disorder in the two weeks prior to completing the survey, and life stress) of male, female, and gender-diverse participants in a recent crowdsource questionnaire, Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians -- Your Mental Health (April 24 to May 11, 2020).

Also worth reading

New COVID-19 Impact Analysis Series

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted and continues to impact many Canadian industries. To provide data users with some insight regarding price movements in selected industries, Statistics Canada is conducting a series of COVID-19

Each impact analysis focuses on the response of a specific industry during past economic recessions and provides the outlook of the price index trend for the year 2020. As part of the analysis, Statistics Canada is releasing projected estimates for a series of price indexes. These projected estimates will be revised when each price index is officially released in the future. New articles include:

• COVID-19 Impact Analysis and 2020 Outlook: Wholesale Services Price Index
• COVID-19 Impact Analysis and 2020 Outlook: Couriers and Messengers Services Price Index
• COVID-19 Impact Analysis and 2020 Outlook: Commercial and Industrial Machinery and Equipment Rental and Leasing Services Price Index

Did you know... ?

Gender, diversity and inclusion statistics hub

COVID-19 has had unprecedented impacts on Canadians, and particularly on the most vulnerable populations. To understand these impacts, disaggregated data are needed for visible minority populations, immigrants, seniors, Indigenous people and other vulnerable populations.

Statistics Canada has enhanced crowdsourcing survey instruments, and used them to collect key information for vulnerable populations—including immigrants, Indigenous people and visible minority groups.

Visit Gender, diversity and inclusion statistics for more information, including disaggregated data on labour, public safety, health and more.

Infographics