Nearly one-third of Canadian companies seeing sales drop by 40%: StatCan

Nearly one-third of Canadian businesses who responded in a newly released survey have seen their revenues plummet by 40% as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Statistics Canada says.

A further one-fifth of businesses reported a revenue drop of between 20% and 40%, the agency said, which suggests that more than half of Canadian companies have watched sales drop significantly since the crisis began in March, when public health officials asked Canadians to stay home and governments ordered the closure of non-essential businesses to slow the spread of the virus.

The highest proportion of businesses reporting heavy losses and large layoffs were in the accommodation and food services sector, as well as retail.

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.

The results are from an online survey this month done in tandem with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Statistics Canada cautions that the study cannot be applied to the overall Canadian economy because the voluntary survey does not represent a random sample of the population.

In a statement, chief statistician Anil Arora says the results should help public and private sector decision-makers.