By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph lost approximately 2,000 jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic shut down, but the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce president says it could have been much worse.
Chamber President Patt Lilly says St. Joseph hasn’t taken the economic hit many cities have, primarily because many St. Joseph businesses were considered vital and did not have to shut down in March.
“The good news for St. Joe is that the economy is doing pretty well here, we’ve had some job loss, but it’s around year-over-year about 3.2% I think, 3-and-a-half percent, which equates to about 2,000 jobs,” Lilly tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “That’s really better than most of our peers.”
Kansas City had a job loss of a little more than five percent, according to Lilly. Lilly says the long-term effects of this pandemic have yet to be seen.
“But I do worry about the 2,000 jobs that are still not back and how many of those jobs will come back,” Lilly says. “So, that will just remain to be seen.”
Lilly says the mask mandate, though controversial, has helped, because it brought reluctant consumers back to the stores.
“Nobody likes wearing the mask, but at the same time I think people understand the need for it and have grown to accept it for lack of a better way of putting it.”
Lilly supports the city council decision to require masks be worn inside of any St. Joseph businesses, retail or other, unless a six-foot distance can be maintained between employees and customers.
“I’m a proponent for wearing the mask when you’re out and about and I think many of the businesses that I spoke to felt the same way. They might not have said it publicly,” Lilly says. “But my rationale behind that was we need to do everything we can to try to control the virus, but without closing down again, without shutting down businesses.”