Business Barometer: Confidence remains steady in March

Canada's small business optimism remained steady in March, holding on to the gains it had posted a month earlier, according to Business Barometer, a monthly index put out by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). The index remains at 62.9 points—the same as in February and 2.7 points above January’s reading...

The national index has been supported by steadily improving perspectives in Alberta (55.5) as well as modest gains to indexes in Ontario (65.6), British Columbia (64.9) and Nova Scotia (65.9). Small business optimism in Quebec, Manitoba and New Brunswick is in similar territory (65.7, 64.5 and 63.8 respectively) but saw slight declines from their February levels. After three-consecutive monthly increases, Saskatchewan’s index dropped slightly to 56.3, while bigger declines were seen in Prince Edward Island (58.6) and Newfoundland and Labrador (42.2).

The industry picture shows broad consistency across sectors, with a couple of exceptions. A sudden drop in sentiment in the construction sector has been offset by a big gain in manufacturing and agriculture. Views from business owners in other sectors show little change from previous survey and the index levels, for the most part, are clustered near the overall industry average...

Other business operations indicators are suggesting a gradually improving economic picture. Hiring plans are recovering to near-normal levels for this time of year, with 21 per cent of business owners expecting to hire full-time staff in the next few months, versus 11 per cent expecting to cut back...

The full report is available on the CFIB website.