Nearly a third of all Canadians businesses that responded to a Statistics Canada survey have seen their revenues fall by 40% due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The poll – which attracted responses from 12,600 companies across the country – was open between April 3 and 24.
It found that a fifth of businesses reported a revenue drop of between 20% and 40%, suggesting more than half of Canadian companies have seen earnings drop since the crisis began in March.
That has led to widespread layoffs and furloughs, with the crowd−sourced survey results suggesting nearly one in five businesses have laid off 80% or more of their workforce.
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The highest proportion of businesses reporting heavy losses and large layoffs were in the accommodation and food services sector, as well as retail.
The lowest proportion of reported losses were in the finance and insurance, warehousing and transport, and information and cultural sectors.
Across the country, over half of businesses in Alberta (57.7%), Ontario (56.3%), British Columbia (54.8%), Newfoundland and Labrador (53.5%) and Saskatchewan (52.8%) saw drops of 20% or more in revenue.
But elsewhere, Prince Edward Island (33.1%), the territories (32.4%) and New Brunswick (30.3%) reported either no change or an increase in revenue.
However, 62.3% of businesses that took part in the survey say they could re−open or return to normal operations less than one month after public restrictions like physical distancing measures are removed.
Nearly three-quarters (72.3%) of businesses said they were negatively affected by social distancing measures.
That includes 90.8% of accommodation and food services, 90.3% of entertainment and recreation and 87% of health care and social assistance companies.
The results are from an online survey this month done in tandem with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Statistics Canada says the study cannot be applied to the overall Canadian economy because the voluntary survey does not represent a random sample of the population.
