Alternative way of finding number of columns.

DECLARE @query nvarchar(4000) = N'select * from employee_master AS TSB';

--Tabular results 
EXECUTE sys.sp_describe_first_result_set @tsql = @query;

--Simple column count 
SELECT
    COUNT(1) AS column_count
FROM
    sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set(@query, NULL, 0);