One of the biggest complaints facing the previous municipal administration of Robert Small was not enough was being done to bring new companies and new jobs to Amherst. It’s something that may have played a role in the October 2016 election that saw a new mayor elected and five new councillors to serve on town council.
Three years later – and one year before the present council goes back before the voters in 2020 – Amherst’s new business development officer, Rebecca Taylor has completed an economic analysis that, if anything, should be thought-provoking with residents of the community.
The analysis says there plenty of jobs in the community, but there’s a labour pool shortage and employers can’t find enough people to fill positions. It’s not just a problem in Amherst, but other companies across northern Nova Scotia have reported the same thing – there are more jobs than people.
Taylor recently spoke to members of the Amherst Rotary Club and said the economic analysis was completed to give council and residents a clearer understanding of the latest state of the local economy using available statistical data.
The information presented – collected from Statistics Canada, the real estate market and by talking to business owners – shows Amherst is actually doing a good job economically. However, to improve things the analysis shows more effort has to be put into recruiting new residents before an effective job can be done to attract new companies – let alone maintain the ones we have here.
An interesting statistic to come out of the research shows the unemployment rate in this area has actually been decreasing over the last five years, from 10.7 per cent previously to 7.1 per cent in 2019. That’s not too bad for an area that’s often viewed as being economically depressed.
The review also shows that Amherst is doing a pretty good job when compared to towns of a similar size, including Truro, Bridgewater, Kentville and New Glasgow. There is economic activity, plenty of activities in Amherst and across Cumberland and a standard of living that’s comfortable.
However, before anyone begins celebrating there are still some harsh realities in our community. It is aging and the population is declining, albeit slowly. There is also a lot of poverty in Amherst and while employers can say there are lots of job for people to enter or stay in the workforce it would be interesting to learn what the actual average rate of pay is.
If you were to talk to organizations such as Empowering Beyond Barriers and those social organizations that work with the working poor and those living at or below the poverty line, you’d discover there are a lot of jobs in Amherst that are either at or slightly above minimum wage – and minimum wage has done a terrible job of keeping up with the cost of living.
As much as some politicians will call for a guaranteed living wage (something around $15 an hour), it’s something that could have a devastating effect on small businesses in increased costs and it could make or break some of those smaller firms struggling to stay afloat.
Besides this dose of reality, Amherst’s business development office deserves credit for putting together the statistics and a report with some recommendations that have attainable goals. Hopefully, it’s something council and the business community embrace and begin working to make Amherst a better place to live, work and play. Unfortunately, we have no choice because if we don’t move forward we run the risk of withering, decaying and disappearing.
