The Service Industries Statistical Program

About Services Industries Division
Surveys managed by Service Industries Division
New initiatives
Contact information

• North American Industrial Classification System (2002)
• General Information for Survey Participants

About Services Industries Division

Service Industries Division conducts surveys of businesses in several different service industries (see below for list of industries covered). The survey data that is gathered makes possible the compilation of annual aggregate statistics for over twenty service industry groupings. Revenue, expense and profit statistics are available, along with aggregate data about other characteristics of firms in these industries. Relative to Canada’s overall economy, the industries covered by the Division’s survey program generate about one-quarter of Canada’s gross domestic product and one-third of its employment.

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Surveys managed by Service Industries Division

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New initiatives

Some important new initiatives involving Statistics Canada’s Service Industries Division:

Quarterly Services Indicators: Most of the service industries data presented in this publication come from annual surveys. Since these data must be collected, processed, and then put through several quality control procedures, the annual results can only be released about 12 to15 months after the end of the reference year. A new project is underway to create more timely sub-annual industry indicators based on administrative tax data. This will lead to the release in 2006 of quarterly revenue growth rates for some service industries to supplement the annual data. Moreover, timeliness will be vastly improved because the quarterly indicators will be available three months following the relevant quarter. This section will update readers regarding future progress for this initiative.

Integration of Culture Statistics Program: Another important initiative is the integration of Statistics Canada’s culture industry surveys. At present, data for many cultural industries are released every 2 to 3 years rather than annually. Moreover, these data are not fully comparable to other data sources. By 2007 the integration of these surveys into the Service Industries Division program will lead to higher quality annual statistics for an expanded number of cultural industries — even at the provincial level. For example, the performing arts, heritage institutions, archives, film, sound recording and periodicals industries will have improved coverage. The data will also be released in a timely manner. This initiative will reduce costs and response burden by eliminating duplication in data collection and processing. As well, the new survey results are expected to not only be consistently measured across the culture sector, they will also be more comparable to those recorded in the United States and Mexico.

Business Conditions Survey, Traveller Accommodations: The traveller accommodation industry is an ideal candidate for a Business Conditions Survey because leisure and business travel are often affected when household and corporate budgets are adjusted in response to changing economic conditions. As well, the industry can be impacted by external shocks such as war, terrorist attacks, unusual weather, health alerts, and exchange rate fluctuations. This new initiative springs from a partnership between Statistics Canada, The Canadian Tourism Commission and the Ontario Ministry of Recreation and Culture. The first-ever results from this Business Conditions Survey appeared in Statistics Canada’s Daily of May 16, 2005 . The survey of nearly 1,400 businesses, most of which are hotels, was conducted in April 2005 to assess their outlook about key indicators such as bookings, occupancy rates, room rates, and hours worked by employees.

Service Industries Newsletter: This is the first edition of a Newsletter that will be released 3 to 5 times per year. The Newsletter covers a wide variety of service industries for which statistics and industry reports are made available. Each issue also has a new Feature Article pertaining to one or more service industries or, occasionally, the service sector as a whole. Also provided is a link to an Analytical Paper Series, also available for free. The Series currently comprises about 50 papers. Through this Newsletter, one can also learn about the methodologies used for business surveys and easily locate information that is helpful to survey respondents. It is envisioned that once our quarterly sub-annual program is implemented, this Newsletter will be published on a quarterly basis to coincide with the Quarterly Services Indicators releases and serve as the primary release vehicle for these indicators.

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Contact information

For more information about surveys, contact the Service Industries Division at servicesind@statcan.gc.ca.