Last Friday, officials from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston met with several dozen business leaders here and made the incredible statement that “the Cape’s economy has been a bright spot in the state”.
The Feds based their remarks on “steady employment” in two sectors, hospitality and construction: 19.3% of the Cape’s workforce is in hospitality, and 8.5% are in construction.
Thus, my low opinion of the Federal Reserve’s ability to analyze and (heaven help us) act on economic data is well justified.
Pummeled senseless by the Katrina catastrophe, even Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans has enough wits about him to worry about his city’s past dependence on low-wage, tourist industry jobs.
As for construction: the US is already seeing a slow down, caused by the huge increases in cost of building materials due to overwhelming demand in the Gulf Coast states.
Massachusetts hasn’t come close to gaining back the jobs lost in the last recession. On Cape Cod, all but one large company, SAS (formerly Infinium), have fled.
The Fed report makes reference to the accumulated wealth of retirees, not recognizing that this will not support the growth of good-paying jobs in this region, but more service sector employment.
The Cape Cod economy generates, at best, second-income types of jobs, such as CNAs, retail clerks and chamberpersons.
The concern with where these people are going to live in order to serve their wealthy employers can only lead to a company store scenario, in which workers are housed in trailer parks and subsidized apartment buildings.
What is especially regrettable about the statements from the Fed is that they provide a justification for wasting even more community resources on tourism – same old stuff from our various Chambers of Commerce and other business groups.
This might provide a few decent short-term opportunities, for example, the wireless initiative in Orleans (where the median price of a house is $650,000) is intended to meet the needs of tourists and second home owners.
But pandering to the wealthy does NOT create a sustainable economy based on primary income jobs.
I would rather see our local Chambers develop a marketing plan to approach big companies, like Raytheon and Lockheed, about subcontracting the services of local businesses.
I’d like to see them aggressively recruit biotech and environmental firms which are now located off Cape.
I’d like to see them identify future opportunities for growth and provide real assistance to local businesses, and not just an endless stream of seminars by semi-retired “experts” whose last real business experience was in the 70’s.
This kind of assistance could include aggressive negotiation on health insurance rates, offering umbrella liability policies, subsidized office rentals, and high-quality sales and marketing services.
Unfortunately, with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston enabling the kind of unimaginative, shopworn thinking that keeps bureaucrats here employed, I don’t think that will ever happen.