The young are much less likely to be self-employed in New Brunswick than the old (ish). We only have data on this from the 2006 Census (and next year from the 2011 Census) but you can see from the table that you are three times more likely to be self-employed if you are in the 55-64 age group than if you are in the 25-29 age group. You can see also that New Brunswick’s youth are also less likely to be self-employed than their counterparts across Canada. The number of 20-24 years olds that are self-employed in New Brunswick is 45 percent lower than Canada as a whole (or was at the time of the Census).
Not sure what the instructive value is in these statistics because I am not sure that self-employment means much in general – although among the 3,500 people between the ages of 25-34 that are self-employed there are a few that could be the next break out entrepreneurs developing products and services that will gain a wide audience outside New Brunswick. That is the cohort I am most interested in – it’s just very hard to pick them out of the data.
Self-Employed Persons per 1,000 in the Workforce (2006)
| New Brunswick | Canada | Differential | |
| Total – Age groups | 81.0 | 116.3 | -30% |
| 15 to 19 years | 12.5 | 14.6 | -15% |
| 20 to 24 years | 14.4 | 26.3 | -45% |
| 25 to 29 years | 35.5 | 56.6 | -37% |
| 30 to 34 years | 56.7 | 91.4 | -38% |
| 35 to 44 years | 81.7 | 124.3 | -34% |
| 45 to 54 years | 98.0 | 140.4 | -30% |
| 55 to 64 years | 142.1 | 187.7 | -24% |
| 65 to 74 years | 302.8 | 356.5 | -15% |
| 75 years and over | 434.4 | 453.7 | -4% |
I *think* you should be more concerned as to why the NB self employment numbers are down over ALL age groups. Solving that one might bring ALL the numbers into line.
I expect that most self-employed become so when the opportunity arises. In provinces with growing economies, there is more discretionary income available. A new company that takes advantage of that income to sell goods and services would have a greater chance of success in those provinces compared to NB.
Many employees would prefer to run their own shop; the opportunities to do so are greater in growing provinces than in provinces where the economy is stagnant. In other words, increasing self-employment is a consequence of a growing economy. NB lacks that, so we have less self-employment.
It would be good to see ‘by province’ numbers so that conclusions would be more readily apparant. No point comparing with BC. It would also be interesting to see ‘by region’ (and no I’m not expecting you to provide that). A resource you may be missing though is the Royal Gazette from the Legislature. I used to check them out from time to time, they list the new businesses registered, the name changes, and the newly defunct ones. Of course as usual they aren’t in any easily searchable state, but they are easily downloaded. THe public accounts also list any supplier of services or grants the government pays out, which can be helpful too.
I think the reason we’re seeing a trend with the older age group is the number of people retiring and setting up their own consulting companies, or those making the decision to do so after they have built contacts in the industry. It’s anecdotal, but I’ve never worked in an area where there are so many self-employed consultants as NB; would be interesting to break down those numbers by industry area.