The monthly Labour Force Survey for March 2025, published by Statistics Canada, includes a spotlight feature perhaps of interest to those concerned with tapping new markets: the survey found most self-employed workers are not covered by health, dental and disability insurance.
“Self-employed workers tend to experience more financial risks than employees and may be more vulnerable to changing economic conditions. Moreover, self-employed workers do not have access to dental, medical or disability benefits from an employer,” Statistics Canada’s researchers write in the monthly report.
After recording virtually no growth in 2022 and 2023, the number of self-employed Canadians grew in the second half of 2024. In March 2025 there were 2.7 million self-employed workers in Canada, up three per cent over the same month in 2024. The proportion of all workers who are self-employed – 13.1 per cent – remains below the pre-pandemic average of 14.9 per cent recorded between 2017 and 2019.
“In March, the Labour Force Survey asked self-employed workers if they were covered by different types of private insurance plans, excluding coverage by provincial or other government insurance. Among self-employed workers aged 15 to 69, 43.3 per cent were covered by a supplementary health care plan, while 36.4 per cent were covered by a dental plan and 25.3 per cent by disability insurance,” they write. Comparatively speaking, 67.3 per cent of employees had access to supplementary health plans or dental plans and 57.1 per cent had access to disability insurance through an employer.
