BC – Growth in the province’s small business sector remained strong through the fourth quarter of 2016 as outlined in the recently released BC’s Small Business Quarterly Report.
During the last three months of 2016, new business incorporations increased 10.8% and business bankruptcies declined 27.7%, which is among the lowest recorded in recent years. Additionally, the number of small businesses in BC in December 2016, excluding people who were self-employed, was 188,057, up 1.9% from a year earlier.
This latest edition of the Small Business Quarterly examines small businesses in BC’s tech sector, noting 9,905 businesses, of which 96% are small businesses, are tech-related according to the latest statistics available from 2015.
The Small Business Quarterly also reports that BC’s tech sector employs more people than mining, oil and gas, and forestry combined and accounts for 4.9% of the province’s workforce. High tech, defined by BC Stats as technology at the cutting edge and usually associated with strong economic growth and advanced technological development, created $26.3 billion in revenue and contributed 7% of BC’s GDP to the provincial economy in 2015. BC’s tech sector is the third largest high tech workforce in Canada behind Ontario and Quebec.
The Small Business Quarterly is a publication created by BC Stats. Each quarterly issue takes an in-depth look at one particular small business area, for example women entrepreneurs were featured in the third quarter edition. The report also gives a general update on the state of the overall sector through that quarter.
