Labour shortages and retention are big challenges in 2022
From SeasonedPros.ca Content Lab
This is Small Business Week in Canada.
Small- and medium-sized businesses make up a significant part of the Canadian economy. They employ people and drive growth.
According to Statistics Canada, small businesses employ almost two-thirds of the labour force. This contrasts with medium-sized businesses that employ 20 percent and large businesses at 15 percent.
Despite this small businesses still face challenges brought about by debt incurred during the COVID pandemic. There is also the ongoing problem of finding and retaining talent.
Here are a few numbers we’ve compiled to get a snapshot of Canadian small businesses in 2022:
- 10 million Canadians are employed by small businesses.
- 30 percent increase in women-owned businesses in the past decade with 360,000 women self-employed.
- 69 recent businesses owned by Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) owned businesses feel optimistic about their business future.
- 33 percent of small businesses (1-19) expect labour shortages to be an obstacle in 2022.
- 64 percent of small businesses (20-99) anticipate labour shortages will be a problem in 2022.
- 35 percent of small businesses (1-19) said recruiting and retaining employees will be an obstacle in 2022.
- 5 percent of small businesses (1-19) plan to offer signing bonuses or incentives to new employees.
- 11 percent of small businesses will offer employees the option to work remotely.
- 42 percent of small businesses (1-19) plan to increase wages over the next 12 months.
- 79 percent of small business owners said they turned to a mentor for advice during the pandemic.
Small Business Week is a great time to celebrate and share stories of business resiliency and plans for the future.
SeasonedPros.ca is an on-demand executive recruiter. Clients with an immediate need for experienced talent trust us to source professionals for project, interim and part-time roles. Each professional in our national database has 20 + years of business experience. We provide our clients 2-4 four vetted professionals in 10 business days or less