BC Monthly Business Starts
Business Starts: After an increase of 271 between August and September, business starts dropped by 185 to 4,272 in October, a 4% drop. This change followed the same direction as last year. Starts decreased last year by 54 between September and October to 4,463. There were 191 more starts last October compared to the latest month.
There were 53,098 businesses registered over the last 12 months, 3,131 more than the previous 12 months, an 6% increase.
BC Business Bankruptcies
After decreasing by 4 insolvencies in July, the number of business bankruptcies increased by 9 in August to 23, one less than August 2009.
There have been 265 business bankruptcies over the last twelve months compared to 448 for the previous twelve months, a 41% drop. The greatest monthly difference between the two twelve month periods remains in February when there were 30 fewer business bankruptcies than in the previous February.
BC Monthly Self – Employed
After breaking 450,000 in August, the number of self-employed in BC decreased over September and October to 424,400, the lowest number of self-employed in the last two years. There were 29,000 fewer BC self-employed over the last two months. This is an expected trend as full time employment in the province is increasing. Self-employment is inversely related to employment. Compared to October 2009, there were 31,200 fewer self-employed, a 7% difference.
Despite this recent decline in BC self-employment, there were more self-employed, on average, over the last twelve months than the previous twelve months. The average number over the last 12 months was 451,400, 3,925 more than the previous twelve months, a 2% increase.
BC Small Retail Employment
In the second quarter of 2010, there were 87,815 employed by small BC retailers. Small retailers are defined by those with fewer than fifty employees. There was a three percent increase in employment for these workers between the first (Q1) and second quarter (Q2) of 2010. This lies within the growth rates of the last four cycles of retail employment for BC. The lowest growth rate (1.8%) was reported in the second quarter of 2009 while the highest (4.3%) was in the second quarter of 2007. Small retailers can be divided into three groups: firms with 0 to 4 employees, 5 to 19 employees, and 20 to 49 employees. Not all of these groups increased employment in Q2. Retailers that reported 5 to 19 employees increased by 1,359 workers while the 20 to 49 employee businesses increased by 1,245. The smallest group, however, reported a drop in the number of workers by 287 between Q1 and Q2 of 2010.
As mentioned above, not all firm sizes move uniformly in the same direction. From the latest information, the 0 to 4 employee size group lost employees while the total increased. The chart on the right uses a blue colour to indicate the total small retail employment increasing while red is used for decreasing total small retail employment. Blue gradient coloured bars indicate a maximum level of employment in the retail cycle while red gradient bars represent a minimum in the cycle. If a blue bar is on the negative side of the horizontal axis, then the group is losing employment while the total is increasing. If a red bar is on the positive side of the horizontal axis, then the group is gaining employees while the total is declining.