Data collected by BIV (page 14) shows that, after years of employment growth, the number of staff at the biggest B.C. businesses owned by women has dropped since 2019.
Over the past five years, average employment at those businesses grew 56.2% to 285 in 2020 from 182.4 in 2016, but the average employment at the top 20 women-owned businesses in 2020 was 6% lower than it was in 2019. That drop erased all the gains made by those businesses in 2019 and reduced their average employment to below 2018 levels.
The median number of employees at the top women-owned businesses suffered an even greater decline. It fell 37.5% to 70 in 2020 from 112 in 2019. The decrease pushed median employment below 2017 levels and erased nearly all the gains made by the top 20 over the past five years.
It also suggests that smaller companies lower on BIV’s list of the biggest B.C. businesses owned by women suffered greater employment declines than larger companies higher on the list.
Over the past five years, No. 1 TPD recorded the most explosive growth on the list, more than doubling in size since 2016. TPD’s employment increased 127.7% to 1,150 in 2020 from 505 in 2016 and helped the company to leapfrog to No. 1 in 2020 from the No. 3 spot on the list in 2015.
SimpleQ Care (No. 3), previously No. 1 on the list, was the only company in the top five with a decline in employment over the past five years.
Since 2016, SimpleQ has lost 3% of its employees, falling to 727 in 2020 from 750 in 2016. However, the overall five-year percentage drop masks the company’s massive employment fluctuation within period. In 2017, SimpleQ Care’s employment fell 27.3% to 545, and while it has not returned to its 2016 high, it has recovered the majority of the employment losses suffered in that year.
Jubilee Tours and Travel Ltd. (No. 7) recorded the largest one-year employment increase: 48.6% to 220 in 2020 from 148 in 2019.
No. 16 Mustel Group suffered the largest one-year decline in employment, falling 46.2% to 35 employees in 2020 from 65 in 2019.
