Economic Development Dashboard

On this page

About this dashboard

Like many municipalities in Canada and around the world, Ottawa’s economy – particularly the downtown core – continues to evolve in the post-pandemic context. Recognizing new challenges and opportunities, the City of Ottawa has made a diversified and prosperous economy a key strategic priority for this term of Council. To track progress, information on the health of the local economy should be readily available to residents, the business community, and other economic development partners.

The Ottawa Economic Dashboard has been created to provide easy access to data in a centralized location, and includes key indicators for the city’s labour force, real estate, livability, and downtown. The dashboard offers a high-level view of Ottawa’s economy and is replacing the quarterly Economic Development Update reports that were previously provided in PDF format to the City’s Finance and Corporate Services Committee and the business community. New data and metrics will be added over time in consultation with the City’s economic development partners.

The economic indicators are presented as a series of cards on the dashboard showing the year-over-year trend “at a glance”. A more detailed breakdown can be viewed for each indicator, allowing users to dig deeper into the data. An About the Data section has been included to describe the importance of the metric to Ottawa’s economy and help contextualize this information.

Definitions

The Economic Development Dashboard contains data on the following indicators for Ottawa’s labour force, real estate, livability and the downtown:

Labour force

Labour Force - persons employed or unemployed and available to work

Participation Rate - percentage of total population aged 15 years and older in the labour force

Employed - persons with paid work or self-employment

Employment Rate - employed persons as a percentage of the total population aged 15 years and over

Unemployed - persons without paid work or self-employment and available to work

Unemployment Rate - unemployed persons as a percentage of the labour force

Vacant Positions - vacant positions on the last business day of the month

Real estate

Housing starts - number of new housing units started

Construction permits - total value of residential and non-residential construction permits

Resale price - average price of resale market homes listed in MLS database

Resale units - number of resale market homes sold listed in MLS database

Office vacancy - office space (Class A, B, C) available for occupancy immediately or within 30 days

Retail vacancy - retail space available for occupancy

Industrial vacancy - industrial space available for occupancy

Livability

Population - City of Ottawa estimate based on census and municipal building permits

Consumer price index - measures price changes for fixed basket of goods and services

Average income - total after-tax income for individuals (market income and government transfers)

Downtown focus

Population - City of Ottawa estimate for downtown based on census and municipal building permits

DaytimePop (Environics) - estimate of pop downtown during daytime hours (vs. nighttime pop in census)

Visits to the ByWard Market - foot traffic recorded within ByWard Market District Authority boundary

Office vacancy - space in Central Business District available for occupancy immediately or within 30 days

Retail vacancy - space in the Central Business District available for occupancy

Food premises - business licenses issued by the City for establishments preparing food (dine-in, takeout)

Patio/Café permits - permits issued by the City or ByWard Market District Authority for outdoor seating

Commercial tax revenue - commercial tax revenue collected by the City in the Downtown Core Transect

Keyboard shortcuts in the Power BI dashboard

Keyboard shortcuts are helpful for moving around in Power BI reports using a keyboard. When accessing a Power BI report, you can press Shift + Question mark (?) to show keyboard shortcuts.

To enter the Power BI report from the main Economic Development Dashboard by using a keyboard, press Tab once after the 'full screen view' link and then press Ctrl + Enter. A small box will appear in the top left corner of the report. Press Tab three times to navigate through the options and you will then be inside the report. From there you can navigate through the content of the report by using Tab and the other keyboard shortcuts enumerated below.

Keyboard shortcuts
Command  Shortcuts
Show keyboard shortcuts Show keyboard shortcuts
Across the product
Commands Shortcuts
Move focus between sections Ctrl + F6
Move focus forward in section Tab
Move focus backward in section Shift + Tab
 
Pane navigation
Commands Shortcuts
Multi-select Ctrl + Space
Collapse a single table Left arrow
Expand a single table Right arrow
Collapse all tables Alt + Shift +1
Expand all tables Alt + Shift + 9
Open a context menu Windows context key or Shift + F10
Multi-select Ctrl + Space
On visual
Commands Shortcuts
Move focus to visual menu Alt + Shift + F10
Show as table Alt + Shift + F11
Enter a visual Ctrl + Right arrow
Enter a layer Enter
Exit a layer or visual Esc
Select or unselect data point Enter or Space
Multi-select Ctrl + Enter or Ctrl + Space
Right Click Windows context key or Shift + F10
Show or hide data point tooltip Ctrl + H
Clear selection Ctrl + Shift + C
Slicer commands
Commands Shortcuts
Slicer control Ctrl + Right arrow

Dashboard

Select the → arrow button located on the top right corner of each indicator card to view a detailed breakdown of the indicator data.

Having trouble viewing the dashboard? Try the full screen mode

Datasets

Labour Force Indicators

 

Real Estate Indicators

 

Population Indicators

 

Downtown Focus Indicators

 

For questions, please contact us at economicdevelopment@ottawa.ca.