- Economic Activity
63.6% of the Corby population are employed as well as 2% who are economically active students. This means a large percentage of 34.4% are unemployed, retired or permanently disabled. This means this percentage will have less disposable income to spend on products and services that Corby businesses offer and the businesses will not make as much profit as if these people were employed. This means that they will have less money to spend on expanding and developing new products and will not be able to employ more staff so the level of unemployment will not improve.
Also in places where the level of unemployment is high, crime rates also tend to be high so the businesses are at risk from crime which may cost them a lot of money if anything gets stolen and they will have to pay extra for security measures meaning overheads will increase.
Over 4000 people are claiming Jobseekers Allowance or Income Support. As there are quite a large number of these, employed people would have to pay more tax to allow the government to provide this kind of support and the employed people may have less disposable income, meaning demand will fall and the business may have to lower prices to motivate consumers. This means there will be less money coming into the business and they may have trouble covering overheads.
Although over 30% of people are not working, only 4.2% are actually unemployed meaning there aren’t that many people that the business can recruit so they may have to recruit from outside of Corby. This will increase overheads as they may have to pay for relocation and these people may expect higher wages.
- Students and Qualifications
Only 3.3% of the Corby population are still in full-time education from the ages of 16-74. One one hand this means there are plenty of staff for the businesses to recruit. On the other hand this means there are not very many people going onto higher and further education or getting useful qualifications so the business may have to train people or recruit people from outside of Corby to do jobs that require these qualifications. This will increase overheads and may cause trouble for the business by disrupting the cashflow.
This also may decrease the amount of disposable income available as the people in this percentage will not be earning much and may be paying off student loans so can not afford the businesses products and services so this may decrease demand slightly.
Nearly 40% of the population of Corby have no qualifications which is an extremely high percentage. This means many people will not be qualified for the jobs available so the business may have to provide training which will increase overheads or recruit from elsewhere which will have the same effect.
Only 8.5% of the population have qualified to degree level or above. Although this would be good for businesses as they would have qualified staff, people with degrees would expect to be paid a lot more than people without them so they would have to pay a lot more out on wages.
Although people that are recruited from within Corby that do not have any qualifications will not expect a high rate of pay which means the businesses overheads will still be relatively low and retained profit may be higher allowing them to recruit more staff, expand or develop new products.
- Housing and Households
32.1% of households have no car or van which could cause problems for the businesses as employees would have difficulty getting to work. The business would have to provide transport for staff which would increase overheads.
33.6% of the households in Corby have dependent children living in them which means the parents in these houses will want a job to provide for their children. This means that the business will have motivated employees as they will want to make as much money as possible. But as the money is being spent on necessities for them and their children, such as food, water and clothes, they will have less disposable income to spend on the businesses services so demand may fall and the businesses may again have to lower prices.
28.2% of the population live alone in a house which means they will have more disposable income as they will only have to pay for necessities for themselves and can spend the rest as they please. As this is quite a large percentage of the population this means the business will have a noticeable increase in demand and profit meaning they can expand or develop new products.
9.4% of the population are lone parents with dependent children which means they may have trouble getting childcare for their children while working. This means the business may have to provide childcare or this percentage may be unable to work. This will either increase overheads for the business or lower the amount of people they are able to recruit again meaning they may have to recruit from outside Corby, also increasing overheads.
Only 3.2% of the population have a house without central heating or the sole use of a shower, bath and toilet. Although this is not a great percentage, those who are in this percentage may not be very motivated and the company may have to take measures to motivate them which may cost money.
