October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month and an opportunity for a statistical snapshot on workforce participation among Canadians with disabilities.
More Canadians with disabilities were majority owners of a private-sector business in the third quarter of 2023, compared with a year ago, according to the latest findings from the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions (CSBC).
The total number of private-sector businesses stood at 1,033,084 in the third quarter. Of those, 2.2% were majority-owned by persons with disabilities. This is up from 1.4% in the third quarter of 2022, and the highest proportion recorded since the CSBC’s inception in 2020.
Profitability and growth
In the third quarter of 2023, over 1 in 10 businesses majority-owned by persons identified as having a disability expected increased profitability (11.0%) and operating income (14.7%) over the next three months. In comparison, of all businesses, 11.4% expected increased profitability and 19.6% expected increased operating income.
Overall, 2% of businesses majority-owned by persons identified as having a disability planned to expand their current location, 6.7% planned to expand operations into a new province or territory within Canada, while 4.9% planned to expand to other locations within the same province.
Gaps still exist for workers with disabilities
Though the increased business ownership rate of Canadians with disabilities is good news, there is still progress to be made in their overall workforce participation and pay equity. According to the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD), over one-fifth (22%) of the Canadian population aged 15 years and older had one or more disabilities.
A recent study from disability data collected through the Labour Force Survey found that the employment rate in 2022 for those aged 16 to 64 years without disabilities was 80.1%, compared with 65.1% for persons with disabilities. These rates fell to half (50.4%) among those with severe disabilities and to more than one-quarter (26.8%) among those with very severe disabilities.
The same study found that the unemployment rate was nearly twice as high for persons with disabilities (6.9%) than for those without (3.8%), and median hourly wages were on average 5.5% lower.
A report released earlier this year using data from the Canadian Income Survey found that, in 2019, persons with disabilities aged 16 years and older earned 79 cents for every dollar persons without disabilities earned.
Looking ahead
In the coming months, Statistics Canada will release results from the 2022 CSD, providing more comprehensive and detailed insights on the labour market experiences of persons with disabilities.
In November, the CSBC will release data for the fourth quarter of 2023.
Note to Readers
We may ask Canadian individuals, businesses and organizations about a particular topic—such as disabilities—in several surveys, but how we ask it depends on the purpose of the survey itself. The Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD), released every five years, provides comprehensive information about Canadian youth and adults whose everyday activities are limited due to a long-term condition or health-related problem. The Canadian Survey on Business Conditions questionnaire includes one on majority ownership, including whether a person is identified as having a disability. Other surveys such as the CSD and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) use the Disability Screening Questions to identify disability. In addition to its main questionnaire, the LFS uses data from the Canadian Income Survey to produce annual labour force information on persons with disabilities.
For more information on each survey:
Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD)
StatsCAN app
Did you know you can read StatsCAN Plus articles and more on the StatsCAN app? If you’re already using the app, let us know what you think by leaving a review in the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Contact information
For more information, contact the Statistical Information Service (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).