Population of businesses with employees

Just over 1,050,500 Canadian businesses had employees in the third quarter of 2005, up 2.6% from 1,024,200 for the same period last year, according to the count of payroll deduction accounts.

Compared to the second quarter counts of 2004, increases in Alberta (+4.6%), British Columbia (+4.4%) and Ontario (+2.8%) contributed the most to the overall rise in the total number of businesses with employees.

The number of employer businesses rose 0.4% from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2005. Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta accounted for the bulk of the increase.

Information on Nunavut and the Northwest Territories will be available individually when sufficient quarterly observations are collected. Currently, counts for Northwest Territories include those for Nunavut.

Available on CANSIM: table 178-0001.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 1105.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Beau Cinnamon (613-951-9021; fax: 613-951-0104; beau.cinnamon@statcan.ca), Business Register Division.