Intuit has launched the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index, a powerful new monthly indicator of employment and hiring among small businesses in Canada, the US, and the UK developed in collaboration with leading global economist Professor Ufuk Akcigit.
Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) is the global financial technology platform behind TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, and more.
The Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index uses purpose-built economic models to normalize anonymized QuickBooks customer data against official government statistics to reflect the general population of small businesses in each country.
This robust methodology expands Intuit’s ability to more clearly delineate between Intuit’s small business customers and the small business community at large, while also providing a powerful new tool that can inform government policies that impact small businesses around the globe, as well as to help small businesses make key decisions.
Employment and hiring data is the bellwether for the overall economic health of Canada and the first monthly Index reveals.
In February, small businesses with one to 19 employees employed 8,700 fewer people (seasonally adjusted) nationally compared to the previous month, which is a monthly decrease of 0.17 per cent. Despite the drop, Canadian small businesses with one to 19 employees still accounted for 5,201,500 jobs.
Sectors that experienced the largest decreases in employment in Canada were Finance and Real Estate (-0.43 per cent), Construction (−0.26 per cent), and Professional Services (−0.17 per cent) while employment increased in Accommodation and Food Services (2.45 per cent), Education (1.19 per cent) and Business Services (1.16 per cent).
The region which saw the most growth was Québec, growing by 0.91 per cent to 1,070,500 jobs. However, Ontario saw the largest decrease, with a drop of -0.29 per cent to 1,917,100 jobs.
“Our new Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index draws on a sizable sample, providing a prompt and precise representation of the economic health of small businesses in Canada. These critical insights can serve as a single source of truth to help facilitate a productive dialogue among small business owners and policy makers to ensure the backbone of our economy continues to thrive,” added David Marquis, Vice President and Canada Country Manager.
“The number of small businesses, the jobs they create, and the innovations they bring make them vitally important to the economy. By keeping a monthly pulse on the health of small businesses, we are able to provide rich insights to power their survival, growth and prosperity.”
New data insights will be added to the Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Index dashboard and published in regular blog posts at the earliest opportunity every month.
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