by Morinville News Staff
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ (CFIB) latest monthly Business Barometer shows a 2.9 per cent drop in the province’s small business confidence. This drop is the second month of decline after five consecutive months of increases.
CFIB measures a score of 65 per cent as the minimum of a healthy economy. Alberta currently sits at 54.3 points, making it the second-lowest in the country, 1.1 points ahead of Newfoundland & Labrador.
“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,” said Alberta Policy Analyst Keyli Kosiorek. “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 CFIB hiring report indicates hiring intentions over the next quarter are low with only 10 per cent of business owners surveyed saying they plan to increase their full-time employment. That number is down three per cent from July. By contrast, 22 per cent of those surveyed anticipate a decrease in hiring over the next three months.
August 2019 findings came from 661 responses, collected from a stratified random sample of CFIB members.
