4.1.1 The Economy

Per capita income in Nova Scotia is less than the per capita income of Canada. The income of residents of rural Nova Scotia lags behind the rest of the province and, by extension, the rest of the country. Guysborough and Richmond Counties, with an entirely rural population, have the lowest average income in Nova Scotia. In contrast, Halifax County — the most urban in the province — has the highest per capita income across all levels of education.

Nova Scotia is broken down into five economic regions. The quad counties are in separate economic regions — Northern (Guysborough and Antigonish) and Cape Breton (Richmond and Inverness). While the majority of Nova Scotia's rural counties have experienced population decline and higher unemployment levels than urban Nova Scotia, it is interesting to note that another — seemingly contrasting — phenomenon is underway: employment in rural and small town Nova Scotia has increased as a percentage of total employment since 1987.⁶ The falling unemployment rates in regions such as Cape Breton and Northern regions must be considered within the context of counties such as Guysborough and Richmond losing 24 percent and 14 percent, respectively, of their population.

Looking at employment in Rural Nova Scotia, there has been a gradual trend toward employment in the service sector over the past 12 years. There has been a transition from the old economy sectors — fishing, forestry and agriculture — to new economy sectors, ones based on knowledge. The service sector has provided a new source of economic growth in Nova Scotia. However, this sector is dominated by Distributive services, which includes retail trade, and employed 34.8 per cent of all those employed by the services sector in 1999 in rural Nova Scotia. On the other side, Producer services (business services such as computer services) make up only 10.9 percent of all service sector employment. One explanation for the lack of employment in the producer services may be due to the fact that rural areas tend to have a lack of skilled labour (Pezzini, 2000, Fairburn, 1998, Illouz-Winicki et al, 1998). The Government of Nova Scotia has acknowledged this as an area in need of addressing and has opened a skills division within the Department of Education with a mandate to address skills needs in the province.