With the global economy witnessing a slowdown, along with base rate hikes and the cost of living crisis, Canadian businesses have put a hold on their hiring and company transformation tasks.
As per a KPMG survey, 92% of Canadian CEOs have expressed apprehensions about a looming recession, although they are less pessimistic about it. In another survey, about two-thirds of small and medium businesses have also expressed similar fears but over 50% of them feel that it will be less harmful to them.
As per the study, 41% of Canadian companies are not thinking about job hiring, while some 49% of them are looking for staff layoffs. For smaller ventures in Canada, 30% of the sector won’t extend their worker headcount anytime soon and 41% may go for the employee downsizing option.
Some 37% of big company CEOs and 25% of small business owners in Canada have also paused their transformation strategies.
However, 96% of the CEOs, who participated in the survey, expressed confidence about bailing out of the recession, while nine in ten small business owners agreed to the same notion.
Stephanie Terrill, partner and business unit leader, management consulting at KPMG Canada to business website WP, said, “While it may be tempting for some leaders to ‘slash and burn’ to manage through a recession, they ultimately do so at their own peril. They are counting on both their customers and talent to be waiting for them on the other side of a recession that may never happen.”