Thirty-five per cent of area businesses are still operating below 50 per cent of their maximum capacity, according to the most recent survey conducted by Grey County.
“The businesses that continue to struggle in everyday operations are those whose services rely on large gatherings, small businesses with a yearly revenue of under $100,000 or less, tourism operators and some restaurants,” said Jacinda Rudolph, economic development officer for Grey County at a recently-held committee of the whole meeting.
“With cases rising across the province this fall, outlook has changed and concern is once again growing among businesses as we head into the winter season,” she added.
Through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Grey County’s economic development department has conducted three surveys of local businesses.
The surveys have been conducted in collaboration with the Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus and member municipalities, with results being shared to the caucus for use in a regional data roll-up to upper governments.
The third survey was conducted from Sept. 28 to Oct. 16 and received 113 replies – 19 from the Town of the Blue Mountains and eight from the Municipality of Grey Highlands.
The survey results show that the hospitality, tourism and arts industries continue to be hit the hardest throughout the pandemic.
These sectors have also experienced the greatest job loss, reporting 172 jobs have been lost in these sectors, compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Savanna Myers, director of economic development, tourism and culture for Grey County said the region was hovering around a two per cent unemployment rate – the lowest in the province – before the pandemic.
“We are sitting around 6.4 per cent unemployment rate right now, which is down significantly from the 12 per cent we were at a couple months ago,” Myers said, adding that Grey County continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the province.
She said that finding employees in Grey County today is no easier than it was for employers pre-pandemic.
“The good news is that our employment rates are picking back up, the bad news is we're still not going to have enough people to fill the positions that are available today or the jobs currently in the pipeline,” Myers said.
According to the most recent survey, 84 per cent of businesses do not anticipate or do not know whether or not they will be hiring in the near future.
Forty per cent of businesses experiencing barriers in bringing employees back to work say its due to the difficulty in creating physically-distanced environments or not having enough work.
“When asked what type of positions they were struggling to fill, the top three responses were entry-level positions, followed by mid-level management or supervisory positions and then trades,” said Rudolph.
The most common concerns going forward for local businesses are the financial impacts of COVID-19, decreasing consumer confidence, the impending global and Canadian recession and employee stress and health.
On a positive note, Grey County has seen a number of businesses pivot their business models to include an online format of some kind.
According to the survey, 24 per cent of businesses have remained opened through the pandemic and, “14 businesses expressed a current increase in revenue, compared to the same time last year,” Rudolph noted.
“There have also been many conversations with entrepreneurs who have started new businesses and are looking to open these new businesses. So, there is some light in the tunnel, and there are some very hopeful businesses out there,” Rudolph continued.
Since the onset of the pandemic, Grey County’s economic development department has taken a number of steps to assist businesses, including launching the Starter Company Plus Recovery Program; an outdoor activity map; the Rediscover Grey campaign; provided the Business Reopening toolkit and a series of webinar featuring advice from the public health department.
County staff are currently working on a 2021 priority work plan that will be presented to county council at an upcoming council meeting.
