December 2022
Spotlight on data and research
Characteristics of Indigenous-owned businesses
In 2018, there were an estimated 37,000 Indigenous-owned businesses among the 2,537,000 Canadian-controlled private corporations and unincorporated businesses in Canada for which sex, Indigenous identity and age of ownership as well as province and employment size can be defined.
The study found that a majority of Indigenous-owned businesses (94.1%) were controlled by First Nations and Métis while Inuits owned 1.6% of them. The remaining 4.3% were owned by individuals with other Indigenous identities. Between 2005 and 2018, Alberta was the province with highest number of Indigenous-owned business (24.0% on average) followed by Ontario (20.1%) and British Columbia (17.4%) The majority of Indigenous-owned businesses (73.4% on average) were held by men over the 2005-to-2018 period. Women-owned and equally-owned Indigenous businesses accounted for 23.2% and 3.4%, respectively.
Insights
Employment growth in Canada and the United States during the recovery from COVID-19
A greater share of Canadians lost their jobs during the COVID lockdowns than Americans. In both countries, the service sector experienced greater declines than the goods sector, with the largest losses observed in close-contact services like accommodation; other services (such as auto mechanics and personal care services); arts, entertainment, and recreation; and food service and drinking places. However, Canada’s employment rebounded more quickly than it did in the U.S. and continued to outpace U.S. employment growth in the two years after the lockdowns. Record-high participation among Canadian core-age workers (those aged between 25 and 54) is the main reason for the different pace of recovery. While the U.S. experienced a “great resignation”, with job quits rates rising to record highs, there has been little sign of this trend in Canada.
Research articles
Occupational profile and work tasks of Canadian PhDs: Gender and field of study differences
The study shows that more than 60% of individuals who graduated with a doctorate from a Canadian university and were in the Canadian labour market in 2016 did not have academic jobs. This proportion varied by field of study, and to a smaller extent between men and women. About 10% of doctoral graduates worked in jobs that did not require a university education.
On average more than 70% of doctoral graduates who were not academics worked in professional occupations related to their field of study (a higher share of men than women in many fields), or in policy research or consulting (a higher share of women than men in many fields). Overall, outside academia, PhD graduates worked in jobs that required fewer analytical tasks than being a university professor or lecturer, but more analytical tasks than jobs held by graduates with a master’s degree in the same broad field of study.
Perceptions of shared values in Canadian society among the immigrant population
Nearly double the proportion of immigrants as Canadian-born people believed that Canadians share values on ethnic and cultural diversity (47% of immigrants versus 24% of Canadian-born people), linguistic duality (42% versus 23%) and respect for Indigenous cultures (37% versus 18%) to a great extent. This study assessed perceptions of shared values — such as on human rights, gender equality and ethnic and cultural diversity — in Canadian society among the immigrant population. These values represent the democratic norms or standards that provide a basis for social inclusion in a diverse society. This difference in perception varied across regions: it was more evident in the Prairies and less evident in the Atlantic provinces. The perception of shared values was greater among recent immigrants when compared with established immigrants. While those who arrived in Canada as adolescents or adults had more favourable perceptions of shared values, immigrants who arrived during their childhood had perceptions of shared values similar to those of Canadian-born people.
Related publications
Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series
- Date modified: