Workforce Trends: Future of Niagara Business | Leap ACT

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Workforce Trends: Future of Niagara Business


The latest workforce trends show promise of a strong future for Niagara businesses. As a business owner, this opens the door to opportunities. Succession & tax planning will be crucial for long-term business success.


As a leader in Niagara’s local labour market planning, authoritative research, and identifying employment trends and workforce opportunities, the Niagara Workforce Planning Board (NWPB) just released their recent annual report.

Some interesting highlights are noted below on the latest trends gained from this report and how it will affect many business owners in Niagara.

The majority of businesses in Niagara are micro-businesses.

“Statistics Canada defines a micro-business as a firm with zero to four employees and a small business as having five to 99 employees.”

In Niagara, there are 23,394 business with 0 employees or family only.

  • 71% employ fewer than 10 people & 2.1% employ more than 100
  • 97.9% are either small or micro-businesses

As the baby-boomer generation increases, it will mean a lot of businesses will be potentially changing hands as they are passed from one generation to another.  Tax planning is a crucial part of succession planning, as there are some excellent exemptions from tax for these types of transactions available under the Income Tax Act. The fact that micro-businesses and small businesses are going strong in Niagara, is a good sign for the Region.

There is a notable shift from manufacturing, which is almost completely offset by jobs in healthcare.

It is no surprise that there is a reduction in manufacturing; however, it is good to see the region was proactive by creating more jobs in health care by managing the exit of manufacturing; a North-American wide phenomenon.  The report also shows that there is a significant growth in education, hospitality and construction as major employers in the area.

We are starting to get a glimpse of the future of Niagara.

To help prepare your business to make the best of current and future opportunities, talk with your accountant first.

Your accountant will help you find the tax benefits available. He can also help you plan the steps you need to take to pass down your business to the next generation. Look to ongoing business services and support as you implement your plan.

Reference – www.niagaraworkforceboard.ca

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