It’s kind of interesting. The population aged 25-34 has been in decline in the Saint John CMA but income growth is heading in the other direction. I recently took a look at the 10 year growth in the number of persons earning $100,000 or more in Saint John compared to the province as a whole (the data on this for other urban centres in New Brunswick only starts in 2007). Across the province, the relative number of persons aged 25-34 earning $100k or in 2000 was 39.5 per 10,000. By 2010 it was up to 146.7 per 10,000. The growth rate was highest among the 25-34 compared to other age groups.
On an absolute basis, as shown below, Saint Johners in the 45-54 age group have the highest percentage of $100k earners (nearly nine percent of the total claiming income in 2010). But look at Freddy Beach. If you are young in Freddy, your chances of earning $100k or more are no better than in Edmundston. But if you can work your way through the public sector and university hierarchies, you have a much greater chance of earning $100k by the time you are 55 than any other urban centre in New Brunswick – by a wide margin. Look at the difference between $100k earners between the ages of 55-64 in Saint John and Moncton compared to Freddy Beach.
Now, for those young ‘uns looking to make the big bucks, they had better head West. In Wood Buffalo (Fort McMurray) there were 5,170 people aged 25-34 who reported earning at least $100k in 2010 – out of a total population in that age group of 14,550 (with reported income). In Saint John, there were 330 people in that age group who reported $100k or more in total income out of a population of 14,430.
Even among the old timers aged 55-64 – you still have nearly five times the people earning $100k or more Fort Mac compared to Freddy Beach.
It’s enough to make you stop and think….
It would be good to see this broken down further by industry, as I am not sure how easily you can compare the business environment of Fort McMurray to that of any city in NB. They way very well attract very different types of people as well. (Being one of those 25-34 year-olds you mention, you literally could not pay me enough to live in Fort McMurray for any length of time.)
This may also be another case where normalizing salary based on some standard index between cities could be helpful, as I suspect many of those people earning $100,000 plus would fall below that threshold if costs were incorporated.
I’d like to see how many of these 100K+ salaries are in Government. If all the high earners are government and all the taxpayers are the lower income earners who have to leave SJ for better lives and salaries how long before the whole thing implodes. I think we here in SJ are on the brink of that now. NB as a whole is in the same boat not far behind.