Business Barometer®: AB small business confidence begins to wane

The latest monthly Business Barometer® results from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ (CFIB) show Alberta’s small business confidence index dropped by 2.9 points in August, the second month of decline after five consecutive months of increases.

This drop pegs the Business Barometer for Alberta at 54.3 points, now the second lowest in the country, and puts the provincial index well behind the national indicator (60.6 points).

“It appears some of that hopeful optimism we saw building earlier this year has begun to wear off and it now looks as if sentiment is sliding backwards,” says Keyli Kosiorek, Policy Analyst, Alberta. “Alberta’s entrepreneurs are feeling the effects of a soft economy and continued economic instability. The provincial government must continue to focus on policies that support economic growth, job creation, and small business if it wants to see further increases in confidence levels.”

The Alberta index (54.3) is also well below the 65 to 75 point range (on the 100 point scale) that indicates the economy is healthy and growing at its potential.

Entrepreneurs’ intentions to hire over the next three months have also slightly worsened. In August, 10 per cent of business owners said they plan to increase their full-time employment (down 3 points from July), compared to 22 per cent who anticipate a decrease (down 2 points from July).

The provincial numbers for August were: Quebec (67.7), Nova Scotia (67.2), PEI (66.7), Manitoba (62.1), New Brunswick (61.3), Ontario (59.9), Saskatchewan (55.4), British Columbia (55.3), Alberta (54.3) and Newfoundland & Labrador (53.2)...

This was excerpted from 29 August 2019 news release by CFIB.