More than half of Canada's self-employed in transportation, from long-haul trucks to taxis, are immigrants. Nine in ten newcomer businesses in the industry are run by the owner alone, as driver, dispatcher and bookkeeper. Across the economy the pattern looks the same. In 2019-2021, 13.6% of businesses owned by people admitted to Canada less than five years earlier had employees, compared with 18.6% of businesses owned by non-immigrants.

It is tempting to read that as newcomers struggling to grow. The data tell a kinder story.

A matter of time

A newcomer's business is young, because its owner arrived recently. About half of the self-employed who landed within the past ten years have run their business for less than three years; among other owners, one in five. And young businesses rarely hire, whoever owns them. In their first year about 11% have paid help, for newcomers and others alike; in years two and three, about 17%.

So compare like with like. Put newcomer businesses next to others of the same age, and the gap in hiring falls from eight points to about one (Labour Force Survey, 2019 to September 2026). Statistics Canada found the same with incorporated firms a decade earlier: immigrant-owned companies were younger, and once age was taken into account, the difference in job creation narrowed substantially.

The owner who works alone

What is left of the gap has a face. It belongs to owners in years three to nine who work 50 hours a week or more. Among them, 28% of newcomers have paid help, compared with 43% of other owners. In Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver the difference is starker: 24% compared with 45%. The newcomer working the longest hours is the one most likely to be doing it alone.

Asked in 2026 what holds their business back, firms majority-owned by immigrants more often name competition, weak demand and financing. Finding skilled workers comes up as often as for anyone else. In their own telling, customers and cash stand in the way more than candidates do.

What helps

Research on small firms points one way. In a randomized trial in Mexico, a year of intensive consulting for firms about ten years old was followed by 44% more employees two to three years later. A one-off voucher for advice, offered to 15,207 British firms, left employment unchanged. In Canada, Statistics Canada compared clients of BDC, the federal development bank, with similar firms: immigrant entrepreneurs who received financing together with advice grew employment 13.5 points faster in 2020-2021, against 5.4 points for financing alone. That comparison comes from a pandemic year and may overstate the effect, but it matches the trial.

The lesson is simple. Judge a newcomer's business against businesses of the same age. And when one has spent years working 50-hour weeks alone, the help most often followed by more employees is advice that stays for months, together with money. A trial of exactly that for newcomer businesses in Canada is still to be run.

The research note

This is an early research note by CFIR, built from public Statistics Canada data, ahead of peer review. The full note, with the method, every number and every caveat, is here: Where the Hiring Gap Sits (PDF).