Canada Small Business Sentiment

Canada’s CFIB Business Barometer long-term index, which measures 12-month forward expectations for business performance, rose by about 10 points to 34.8 in April 2025, rebounding from last month’s record low of 25.5. Despite marking a sharp rebound, the result showed that business pessimism compares with that of March 2020, the start of the pandemic, underscoring the growing impact of tariffs, trade wars and the threat of additional trade restrictions that have severely undermined business optimism. Full-time hiring plans also rebounded slightly in April, but are well below normal for this time of year. More companies plan to lay off workers (17%) than hire (14%) in the next 12 months, while the average planned price increase remained elevated at 3.5%. The short-term optimism index, based on a 3-month outlook, also rose 8 points to 40.1.