After yesterday’s Retail Sales Index figures revealed growth for an eleventh consecutive month, Rajan Simons visited Hamilton to ask: “Have you felt the economy improve in the past year?”

• Edward Stowe, 65, of Pembroke: “I’ve been employed for six years. I’m a crane operator and the industry has kind of come to a standstill. I usually get a hustle every now and then but nothing permanent. There’s a lot of people out of work hurting and yet every time you turn everything is getting more expensive.”

• Winfield Simpson, 61, Pembroke: “I’m far better than I was a year ago spiritually, but financially not so much. I was made redundant in 2012. I own a taxi but I can’t work because it’s not licensed and insured and those things cost money. The cost of living is inflated. It’s very sad that people like myself, who have been hard-working all their lives, get made redundant and can’t keep all those things that they have previously been able to maintain like assets because they can’t find work. I think that the current government is only improving things for their new stakeholders — there’s no progress at all for the natives.”

•Colin Rego, 22, Hamilton: “I just got back from college and I’m staying for a while because I have some projects going on. Financially it’s a little tight coming home because jobs aren’t as easy to get, most definitely. The economy right now is weak, especially in Bermuda because they don’t want to hire you unless you have experience.”

• Mark Aubrey, 48, Devonshire: “I think that I’m better off now than I was last year. I’m working, I have a place to live. I do see the lives of others getting better but I don’t know if the rise is going to help everybody. It’s going to help some people: the people that want to be helped.”