Businesses in Canada continue to expect challenges due to rising costs, hiring and retention difficulties, supply chain issues and inflation, according to Statistics Canada’s Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, released today.
Over the next three months, three in five businesses believe rising inflation to be their top obstacle.
Overall, 31.7% of businesses expect the cost of insurance to be an obstacle over the next three months.
The report also found that 26.8% of businesses expect difficulty acquiring inputs, products or supplies domestically over the next three months. Among these businesses, 54.3% expect these challenges to continue for six months or more, down slightly from 57.3% in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, one-third are uncertain how long these challenges will persist.
When asked about their expectations over the next three months, 34.0% of businesses expect to raise prices. Although this is down from 39.0% in the second quarter, the decrease follows three straight quarters of continued increases in the proportion of businesses anticipating raising prices.
Additionally, 80.4% of businesses expect to retain the same number of employees over the next three months, up from 76.9% during the second quarter. Conversely, 7.2% expect their number of employees to decrease, up from 5.0%.
Other findings:
- For 38.7% of businesses, recruiting skilled employees is expected to be an obstacle over the next three months, led by those in construction, 51.1%; healthcare and social assistance, 49.3%; and accommodation and food services, 48.9%.
- In addition, for 37.1% of businesses, labor force shortage is expected to be an obstacle, while retaining skilled employees is expected to be an obstacle for 30.9%.
- 61.8% of businesses reported that recruiting and retaining staff is more challenging than a year ago.
- 8.2% of businesses expect more job vacancies over the next three months, relatively unchanged from 8.8% in the second quarter. However, 21.7% of businesses in accommodation and food services expect to have more vacant positions, over double the proportion of all businesses, in the third quarter.
- 72.9% of businesses expect positive average yearly growth over the next three years, with 65.0% anticipating growth ranging from 1% to 15% per year. Meanwhile, 14.6% of businesses anticipate no growth over the next three years.
- 69.4% of businesses reported being either very optimistic or somewhat optimistic about their future outlook over the next 12 months, with arts, entertainment and recreation leading the way at 80.9%, followed by healthcare and social assistance at 80%.
The survey was conducted from July 4 to Aug. 8.