Noelle Christie, right, with Martina Jackson outside Noelle's Country Market and Bakery in Balls Creek: "It’s worse now than it’s ever been for small businesses." IAN NATHANSON/CAPE BRETON POSTBALLS CREEK — “What else do you need to do to find workers? I just don’t get it.”
Earlier this week, a post went out on the business’s social media page warning that if the job postings aren’t filled within the next few weeks, Noelle’s will have to reduce its hours starting in mid-April. “You know things are pretty bad when you have to have a job fair for a small restaurant,” Christie said.Noelle’s currently employs four people, but Christie said she and store clerk Martina Jackson are going full tilt six days a week and alternating times when they can take even one day off. In the past five years, neither has had any opportunity for a vacation.
“She dropped by the store again and I asked about the resumé, and she mentioned she lost the email address. So I gave it to her again. Never heard a thing from her since."