Trendlines
Perspectives on Utah's Economy
September-October 2010
contents
Wasatch Front and Statewide - A Recently Posed Question 4
The Outlook - Joining the Blogosphere 6
Economic News - Governor's Office of Planning & Budget 8
Economic Insight - More Than Dollars & Cents...10
National News - Data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics 12
Insider News - Avast! Thar Be Gold in the UEDV 14
DWS News - How May We Serve You? 17
What's Happening - FirmFind—A Unique Application on18 Utah's DWS Web Site 18
Occupations - Writers & Editors: Same Goals, Different Approaches 20
The Outskirts - Industrial Employment and Growth in Rural Utah 22
Our Guest - Monitoring Utah's Construction Permitting 24
County Highlight - Daggett County 26
Just the Facts...Rate Update 27
wasatch front and statewide | by mark knold, chief economist
A Recently Posed Question
Are employers letting go of less productive employees more during the recession than at other periods? There seems to be supportive evidence that yes, this is the case. For one, measurements of the United States economy have shown high levels of productivity growth over the past two years. Past recessionary periods (job losses) have also shown high productivity gains during the job-cutting stage of the downturn. The logic makes sense. Businesses know who their most productive workers are. Generally, they are the ones with either advanced education, and/or those with high amounts of experience and institutional knowledge. We will operate under the general assumption that education and experience (time or tenure) are the valuable assets that businesses wish to hang onto within the labor force.
Looking at the changes within the Utah labor force between 2006 and 2009, there is evidence to support this. When we segment the labor force by age groupings, the 16-19 year grouping saw its share of the labor-force pie fall from 7.2 percent in 2006 to 5.9 percent by 2009—a 1.3 percentage-point decline. In more dramatic fashion, the 20-24 year age group saw its percentage of the labor force fall from 15.8 percent in 2006 to 12.6 percent in 2009—a more dramatic 3.2 percentage-point decline. Yes, some of this could be aging shifts within the labor force with time, but not enough to cause these large percentage-point shifts in just three years. The remaining age groupings—in other words all remaining age groups that are older—saw their percentage-point makeup of the labor force rise. These shifting percentages suggest that younger workers were let go on a more sizeable scale during this economic downturn than were older workers.
It is important to note that the recession was deep enough to cause the labor force participation rate of all age groups to fall over the past three years (labor force participation is the percentage of all the population within an age group that is active in the labor force). But again, that fall was most dramatic in the younger age groups. For example, in 2006, among the age group 20-24, 83.5 percent of all
Utahns in this age group were active in the labor force. By 2009, this participation rate had fallen to 77.1 percent. This suggests many workers within this age group became discouraged during this period and have simply removed themselves from the labor force. The younger portion of the labor force may have more options to fall back upon in order to “disappear” from the labor force, such as going back to or entering into the higher education system, or possibly hanging out in Mom’s basement.
Did you Know?
• Janicki Industries has announced an expansion into Utah. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700044266/Janicki-Industries-to-expand-into-Utah.html
• After years of dreaming, Salt Lake City is now planning for a complete makeover of its airport terminal. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/49842607-76/airport-lake-salt-terminal.html.csp
• More than 2,000 acres of vacant land between I-15 and Utah Lake at the former Geneva Steel site could be transformed into commercial, industrial and residential development. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_15289730jobs.utah.gov/wi
the outlook | by lecia parks langston, economist
Joining the Blogosphere . . .We’ve just launched our own blog
The economists at the Utah Department of Workforce Services have just launched a blog. You might guess that it is about the Utah economy rather than about cooking our way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Okay, we’re a little late to the blogging party. Apparently, folks have been “weblogging” (can it be true?) since 1997. And, since everyone from the White House to Britney
Spears has a blog, we thought it was about time we did, too. I’m kidding.
We really started our blog because we thought it would be useful to you—our customer. So, what kind of information might you find at our blog?Economic Events. Our blog tracks events that affect the Utah economy—layoffs, new hires, new construction projects, company expansions, training grants etc.
Economic Information. Foreclosures, national park visits, unemployment rates, job growth, home permits, sales, demographics, wages and more—as the information becomes available, we’ll post it. We’ll also alert you to the release of government data for Utah and its various counties—and provide you with the appropriate links.
New DWS Publications. As we release new labor market information publications, we’ll be blogging about it. You’ll also be able to find tidbits from various articles to whet your interest in our various newsletters, magazines, and economic products.
Musings. Now remember, we’re a public agency and our goal is to be objective. In other words, we work hard to put aside our political opinions. However, the economists who post to our blog at times may point out the appropriate way to use data or elaborate on what it really means. Disraeli didn’t say there are “lies, damned lies, and statistics” for no reason. Data is frequently abused or misinterpreted. We hope some of our blog posting will clarify the economic data that’s out in, well, the blogosphere.
Regions and Topics
Those of us who live in counties outside the Wastach Front often feel neglected. However, our blog allows you to track events by region. Just interested in the southwestern part of the state? You can click on the Southwest region “tag.” Or are you just curious about what’s happening in tourism? Click on the tourism tag. Want to follow a particular economist’s posts? Select their tag. You can customize the
information you want to see.
Comments
And, yes, we welcome your comments on our blog. We’d love you to suggest topics, comment on our musings, discuss Utah’s economy, question us, etc. However, we will monitor comments to assure that they are appropriate for a government-sponsored blog. (We want to make sure our grandmothers wouldn’t be embarrassed to read them—not in censoring dissenting comments.)
What is it?
Hopefully, you’re all dying to check out our blog. So, I'll just finish with the link: http://economyutah.blogspot.com
economic news | by jim robson, economist
Governor’s Office of Planning & Budget
Bookmark this link, http://www.governor.utah.gov/gopb/ or just google “gopb” for one of the most useful public & policy and economic resources about Utah.
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (GOPB) is a key government agency within Utah public policy circles. The focus of GOPB is to provide factual information needed to make informed decisions concerning planning, budgeting, economic development, and good governance in the State of Utah. The data and analysis disseminated by GOPB not only support the goals and policy initiatives of the Governor, but provide a common set of information needed by other public decision makers and the citizenry to discuss and make government policy in Utah.
Within GOPB there are four major functions or sections—Budget, Plannivng, Demographic and Economic Analysis, and Strategic Management.
BUDGET
The Budget section develops the Governor’s recommended budget that he summits to the legislature prior to each annual regular legislative session. This budget reflects the goals and objectives of the Governor with regard to spending the state’s limited resources in line with major priorities of education, transportation, infrastructure, economic development, social services, etc.
In addition, the Budget Section tracks the many state programs and their expenditures throughout each year.
PLANNING
The Planning section promotes quality growth and development of the state, providing leadership and coordination between local, state, and federal government programs. This section provides technical assistance for local government planning and land use efforts, as well as monitoring and representing the interests of the State of Utah as impacted by federal government policy and programs.
DEMOGRAPHIC & ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
This section develops, analyzes and disseminates economic, demographic, and fiscal data in support of planning, budgeting, and policy making within state government. This data and analysis
effort seeks to provide and coordinate the use of objective, factual information that government officials, policy makers, businesses, and others can use.
Major informational resources from the DEA section include:
- Estimates and forecasts of population levels and demographic characteristics
- Economic conditions of the state, particularly with the annual publication of the “Economic Report to the Governor”
- Tracking and forecasting of state revenues and expenditures
- Utah information from U.S. Census Bureau, coordinating and disseminating data through the State Business and Industry Data Center Program
- Long-term economic and demographic projections for state planning
- Economic and fiscal impact analysis of major projects and economic development
- Produces and disseminates special studies on important state planning and budgeting issues.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
The relatively new Strategic Management section was formed to monitor and improve state government performance and efficiency. Constant efforts are applied to promote best practices, collaboration, high levels of performance, training and innovation as state government resources are used to provide services to Utah’s residents.
economic insight | by nate talley, economist
More than Dollars & Cents…
Compensation for employment is more than just what shows up on your paycheck. Employer-provided healthcare benefits, vacation days, sick leave and retirement contributions, along with monetary payments, comprise whatis sometimes referred to as “total compensation.”
To identify and assess the benefit component of total compensation in the national and regional labor markets, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) conducts the National Compensation Survey (NCS). To ascertain NCS data, BLS surveyed approximately 18,000 establishments in March of 2009. The NCS sampling frame includes workers in the private nonfarm economy except those in private households, and workers in the public sector, except the federal government.
The 2009 NCS found that 74 percent of all workers had access to some kind of employer-provided medical benefit plan. Of those workers, 76 percent participated in the plan, meaning that 56 percent of all workers participated in an employer-provided medical benefit plan. The average monthly employer-paid premium for single coverage medical benefits was $338.32. For family coverage, the average monthly employer-paid premium was $758.65. While not all employer-provided medical benefit plans required an employee contribution, of the plans that did, the average monthly employee contribution for single coverage was $89.86 and for family coverage it was $347.93.
Other national benefit incidence uncovered by the NCS included retirement benefits (71 percent of all workers had access to an employer-provided plan, 80 percent of those workers enrolled, leaving 57 percent of all workers participating in an employer-provided retirement plan), paid holidays (76 percent of all workers had access), paid sick leave (66 percent of all workers had access) and paid vacation (75 percent of all workers had access).
Unfortunately, Utah-specific benefit data is difficult to come by. The NCS disaggregates the nation into nine regions for which benefit data is published, and Utah is grouped in an eight-state area called the Mountain Region which also includes Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. Typically, workers in the Mountain Region have slightly lower access to employer-provided medical, retirement and paid leave benefits when compared to the nation.
The Fourth Quarter 2009 State of Utah Job Vacancy Study, which is conducted by the Department of Workforce Services, does not estimate employer-provided benefit data for the entire workforce, but it does provide a glimpse of what the benefit situation is like for job openings in metropolitan Utah. The 2009 JVS found that 46 percent of metro jobopenings offered medical benefits, 43percent offered retirement benefits, 40percent offered paid sick leave and 47percent offered a paid vacation benefit.
These numbers are considerably lowerthan the NCS benefit access estimates. Some of the gap can be attributed to the different units of measure that the NCS and JVS employ (NCS measures workers and JVS measures job openings). However, the most likely explanation is that nearly 50 percent of the job openings in metro Utah were for part-time employment, whereas only 12 percent of total employment is part-time, and part-time jobs are lesslikely to offer benefits.
The Job Vacancy Study defined Metropolitan Utah as Weber, Morgan, Davis, Tooele, Salt Lake, Summit, Utah, Wasatch and Juab counties.
Utah workers have slightly lower access to employer-provided medical, retirement and paid leave benefits when compared to the nation.
For more information on the NCS or JVS visit http://www.bls.gov/eci/ and http://jobs.utah.gov/wi/pubs/jvs/.
national news | by mark knold, chief economist
Data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
The federal government is both a rich source and the original source for oodles of statistical information. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the government resource for economic variables surrounding the labor market. But like many federal government web sites, it can be—shall we say—cluttered. Familiarity with the site unlocks the door to its wealth of economic information.
Let’s keep it simple and focus on three statistics—employment, unemployment, and occupational wages. These can be found nationally, by state, and by major metropolitan areas.
Let’s start with employment. On the web site, find the tab across the top labeled Databases & Tables. Now click on the Employment link. There are separate rows for national and state/metropolitan data. From here, I would recommend the column labeled One-Screen Data Search (the green icon). If looking for Utah data, select the state row. A new window pops up. In box 1, select Utah. In box 2, select statewide. In boxes 3 and 4 select Total Nonfarm. In box 5 select All Employees, in Thousands. In box 6, there are the options for seasonally adjusted or not seasonally adjusted (both can be chosen). Once these steps are taken, box 7 will be Get Data.
A new window will open with your results. The default of history will be from 2000 to 2010, but a drop-down box allows the employment search to go all the way back to 1939, if one so chooses.
You can largely repeat this procedure to get unemployment data. Having clicked on the Databases & Tables tab, instead select Unemployment. Again, there are two rows of interest; one national, the other local (called LAUS). Again, I recommend the column of green icons. You can work your way through the boxes, selecting Utah, then statewide or counties, and the seasonally adjusted or not (seasonally adjusted only available statewide). As before, your results will default to a history from 2000 to 2010, but data back to 1976 is available by changing the date in the drop-down box.
Finally, occupational wage data. This can be found on the left column of the home page, under the heading Subject Area. Hover over Pay & Benefits, then select Wages by Area and Occupation. From here, national, state, or metropolitan areas can be chosen. As an example, select Metropolitan Area (375 nationwide metro areas are available). Select U (for Utah) from the alphabetical index, then Salt Lake City. Twenty-two major occupational categories are now available. Select Computer and Mathematical, and you will get a list of occupations under this heading and some wageresults. Median and mean hourly wages, and mean annual wages by occupation are given (survey results).
An added benefit is these wages can be compared across occupational areas. By going back just a few steps to the alphabetical index, you can select a different state and one of its metropolitan areas, and check the pay of the same occupational titles in that metropolitan area. When comparing wages across areas, keep in mind that some area’s cost-of-living’s are higher than in other areas, so compare wages accordingly.
insider news | by george angerbauer, labor market information specialist
Avast! Thar be Gold in the UEDV...The Utah Economic Data Viewer (UEDV) and its Hidden Treasures
Ye scurvy scalliwags need not be Jack Sparrow to discover doubloons of information in the UEDV—the jolly Utah Economic Data Viewer. Behind its ominous title (shiver me timbers!), the UEDV is easy to use and simple to navigate.
Check it out. Just weigh anchor, point your prow to jobs.utah.gov and click on ‘Workforce in the far-left menu sandbar. You’ll arrive at the home harbor page for labor market information, and on the right-hand side you’ll see a text box with UEDV in big, bold letters as blue as the very ocean. Ahoy! Click there, go forth and economic gems are yers for the taking.
Here’s a quick summary of UEDV’s virtual treasure trove. And this is just the tip of the masthead. Arghhh—have fun exploring!
The Utah Occupational Explorer
It takes just about any occupation you can think of and tells you:
- A basic description of duties and activities
- The short- and long-term job outlook
- Estimates of employment demand over the next 10 years
- Related occupations
- Related industries and employers
- Skills for the occupation
- A peek at current job openings
- A list of education and training providers
County and Statewide Information
This is an overview of labor market information in a particular area within the state or statewide. Data includes:
- Basic geography
- Summary employment and wage data
- Average quarterly non-farm employment
- Seasonally adjusted labor force data
- Unemployment rate
- Population data, such as births or deaths
Utah Occupational Wages
Go here for wage data for the entire state and specific sub-state areas. Information you’ll find for just about any occupational title includes:
- Inexperienced, average, median and middle-range wages
- The basic level of training required for the occupation
Utah Labor Force Data Viewer
Here you can search for employment and unemployment data, by county and statewide, from 1990 to the present. Just select the geographic area or year you’d like to view, and you’ll get a screen full of valuable insights (which you can sort by!) into the area’s labor force.
Utah Population Data Viewer
This tool displays official Utah state and county population estimates from the Utah Population Estimates Committee. You can choose a specific county, the entire state, or a certain year.
FirmFind
One of the newest tools on the UEDV, FirmFind is an online directory of over 80,000 businesses in Utah! Go here to find a company’s name, address, phone number, size, and industry type. You can search for businesses by:
- Industry
- Occupation
- Name
- Largest Number of Employees
Utah Employment and Wages
This tool draws data from reports submitted by employers to the Utah Unemployment Insurance program. Select a geographic area and a time of year, and you’ll find a wealth of data for a particular industry or industry sector.
VETERANS
The Dept. of Workforce Services is here to support you with your employment needs and other resources.
Did You Know...
- As many as 154,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. More than twice that many experience homelessness over the course of a year.
- Male veterans are twice as likely to become homeless, and female veterans are four times more likely to be homeless than their non-veteran counterparts.
• Job referrals
• Training
• Job search workshops
• Resumes
• Job development
• Food stamps
• Homeless prevention assistance
• Medical
• Resource referrals
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Bob Ferreira
480 27th St.
Ogden, UT 84401
801-626-0338
Dave Maxfield
1290 E. 1450 S.
Clearfield, UT 84015
801-776-7805
Bob Wilson
1290 E. 1450 S.
Clearfield, UT 84015
801-776-7862
Scott Teuscher
763 W. 700 S.
Woods Cross, UT
801-298-6627
Equal Opportunity Employer/Program
Sponsored by:
Utah Department of Workforce Services
U.S. Department of Labor
dws news | by david ostrom, dws web manager
How may we serve you?
Chances are, you or someone you know has need for the services of the Department of Workforce Services (DWS). In February of this year, more than 16,000 individuals filed a new claim for unemployment insurance in the state of Utah. Of these, 9,343 filed their claims online at jobs.utah.gov.
At this very moment, there are more than 150,000 individuals actively browsing our online database of more than 6,500 job openings at jobs.utah.gov.
If you’re reading this article online, you’re one of more than 8,000 online subscriptions to our labor market information at jobs.utah.gov.
All of these services (and more) are part of the network of services available online through the Department of Workforce Services. Whether you’re a recruiter for a hospital in Salt Lake or an unemployed painter in St. George, DWS provides an array of services that are likely to benefit you or someone you know. Consider all that can be done online at jobs.utah.gov:
• Job search and recruitment—free to both job seekers and employers
• Quarterly UI tax filing
• New Hire reporting
• Access to Utah economic and demographic data
• Career, training and job information
• Claim filing and reporting for unemployment insurance online services.
• Applications for food, financial, medical and child care benefits
In March of this year, DWS took more than 16,000 new online applications for food, financial, medical and/or childcare benefits. About that same time, 38,116 employers completed their quarterly filing online and more than 190,000 unemployment insurance recipients filed their weekly claims online.
The Department of Workforce Services, in support of Utah citizens, maintains a strong web presence in order to more effectively deliver our services. The challenges of our current economic environment greatly increase demand for our services. In response, DWS is continually looking for ways to improve how we deliver services online. If, at any time, you would like to comment or provide suggestions on how we might improve our online services, please email us at dwswebmanager@utah.gov. Your professional comments and suggestions are welcomed.
what's happening | by john mathews, economist
FirmFind—A unique application on Utah’s DWS Web Site
• Where can you get a list of the largest employers in your area?
• If you want to be a computer programmer, where can you find a list of the firms most likely to hire them?
• Who are the largest plumbing contractors in your county?
• About how many workers does a specific firm employ?
• I want to start up a company that sells supplies to medical offices. How can I get a list of potential customers?
The Department of Workforce Services (DWS) provides this information, for free. Over 15 years ago I had an idea to create an online tool that would aid school and career counselorsin helping students and job seekers make the connection between an occupation and the employers that employ that occupation. That was the seed that created FirmFind.
DWS is the administrator of the Unemployment Security Act in Utah. A requirement of the Act is for all covered employers to report their employment and wages to the Department. One of the purposes is to calculate an employer’s unemployment insurance tax or contribution rate. Individuals who become unemployed then have a record of how long they worked and what their wages were so unemployment insurance benefits could be calculated. This administrative data and a survey of employers that collects occupational employment information (called the Occupational Employment Statistics or OES Survey) enabled FirmFind to be created.
The beauty of FirmFind is that it creates an efficient way for job seekers andstudents to identify and contact potential employers without going through the phone book or other cumbersome lists. Remember there are over 80,000 employers in Utah. FirmFind engages this huge listing by industry and county to expedite the identification of potential places to apply for work.
In the initial application the system was designed to have individuals enter the occupation they were interested in and a list of the industries in which that occupation was concentrated was produced. The person would then select an industry and a list of employers was generated. The information on employers included the name, address, phone number, industry, and employment range.
That was the original purpose of FirmFind. It has morphed into a very popular source of micro-economic information. You can get a list of the largest employers (by the number of employees) in your county. Also, you can create a list of all the employers classified by what they do and the industry they compete in: for example, a list of the firms that manufacture mining machinery in the state or a selected county.
A business owner looking for a marketing tool can find a listing of firms by industry, county, and number of employees for FREE! And, if you wish, the listing of firms in FirmFind is downloadable in two files: one for Salt Lake County and one for the rest of the state. The download is in a spreadsheet-compatible format. Alternatively, you can do a search and then elect to download just that listing of firms, for example, the firms in Weber County.
Go to the web site at the link below and experiment. You have four choices to access the firm listing in FirmFind: by industry; by occupation; by specific firm name; and by size of firm in a largest firm listing.
FirmFind
Find Firms by Industry
Find Firms by Occupation
Find Largest Firms
Download FirmFind Data
Find Firms by Name
http://jobs.utah.gov/jsp/firmfind/welcome.do
occupations | by linda marling church, research analyst
Writers & Editors: Same Goals, Different Approaches
“I suppose some editors are failed writers; but so are most writers.”
~T.S. Eliot
Writers originate and prepare written materials such as scripts, stories, and advertisements. Editors plan, coordinate, or edit materials for publication. They may also review proposals and drafts for possible publication. Generally speaking, editors look at writing from the reader’s point of view; writers from writer’s point of view.
Writers expand upon ideas to create books, magazine articles, trade journals, online publications and advertisements. Writers also create screenplays, song lyrics, and textbooks. The web is a new and increasingly important outlet for writers who contribute to blogs, online chats, and e-zines. It has greatly increased the number of freelancers: self-employed writers who seek out writing assignments or sell their own articles to a variety of publishers, news organizations, advertising agencies or producers.
Writers who produce non-fiction must conduct research, check facts, and express ideas clearly.
Editing is the process of reviewing and then condensing, correcting or arranging written material, images, sound, video, or film, with the objective of preparing it for final presentation. In all these media, the process of editing is the same, while the responsibilities are different. For instance, print editors may write an editorial in a newspaper, review stories and propose ideas, or decide which manuscripts get published, depending on who their employer is. A magazine publisher could employ editors for sports, international news, or feature stories, all of which would be overseen by an executive editor or editor-in-chief.
A bachelor’s degree is usually the minimum level of education required for writing or editing positions, with preference given to communication, journalism, or English majors. Beyond that, expertise in a subject and good writing skills can be a way to enter the fields, although more difficult. Most editors started out as writers. The most common way to advance is to start writing or editing, for any media, gain a following, and build on your reputation. Employers usually request a writing sample along with a resume. The more samples that are available and the better the quality, the better the odds are for the applicant getting a job.
In 2008 there were about 152,000 writers and authors in the United States and about 130,000 editors. Of those, 70 percent of writers and authors were self-employed and twelve percent of the editors were self-employed.
the outskirts | by john krantz, economist
Industrial Employment & Growth in Rural Utah
Determining which industries have been growing the fastest in rural Utah is important for mainly two reasons. First, it helps us assess whether past economic development policies have been successful. Second, it provides a hint as to which industries will likely exhibit strong growth in the future. Knowing which industries are the largest is also important for understanding what drives the rural economy. Here we will look at the top five rural industries by size and growth.
Rural counties are conventionally classified as those that fall outside of metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas. According to this definition, there are 14 rural counties in Utah. The complete list is Beaver, Daggett, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Kane, Millard, Piute, Rich, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, and Wayne Counties.
What are the Largest Rural Industries?
Industry size is measured in terms of employment within the industry. To put rural employment in perspective, the average number of jobs in the 14 rural counties was 48,866 in 2009, which accounted for 4.1 percent of Utah’s total employment.
The accommodation and food services industry is the largest rural employer. Many rural counties are located near national parks, which draw in tourism dollars that support the industry. Retail trade is ranked second and the percentage is fairly close to the U.S. average of 13.6 percent of total employment. Government usually accounts for a large share of employment in rural counties, including education and public administration. All of the public administration workers and 96 percent of education workers are government employees.
Which Industries are Growing the Fastest?
- The fastest growing industries in rural Utah are:
- Administrative & waste services 67.5%
- Mining 57.0%
- Real estate & rental and leasing 43.8%
- Transportation & warehousing 37.6%
- Healthcare & social assistance 36.6%
Growth is measured as the total percentage change from 2000 to 2009. For the purpose of comparison, the total non-agricultural employment growth rate for rural Utah is 12.8%. Keep in mind that the employment growth rate includes 2009, which represents the bottom of the recessionary trough.
The fastest growing rural industry is administrative and waste services. This industry encompasses a wide range of different types of services, including employment agencies, telephone call centers, collection agencies, and travel agencies, along with waste collection, treatment, and disposal. The second-fastest growing rural industry is mining, which includes not only oil, gas, and coal extraction, but metallic and non-metallic mineral extraction as well. For several rural counties, mining is the driving force behind their economies.
Interestingly, healthcare is the only industry found on both the largest and fastest growing lists. Typically, large industries tend not to grow rapidly because demand only increases with population growth. The robust rural demand for healthcare services indicates that each individual, on average, is demanding a greater amount of healthcare services. In this respect, rural Utah is consistent with the ever-growing demand for healthcare services across the United States.
our guest | by mark knold, chief economist
Monitoring Utah’s Construction Permitting
Home building is an important part of the Utah economy, as it adds its fair share of jobs to the Utah economic base. Recent times have shown that home building can be rather volatile, with a building surge blossoming between 2003 and 2006, countered by an historic dearth of new home activity (2007 to the present). The amount of new homes requested to be built—gauged through the home-building permitting process—can be an indicator of the health and demand for employment within the construction industry. Because of this, Utah’s housing permits become an economic indicator, a forerunner to the important construction and housing-related industries within Utah.
The source for following new-home permitting in Utah is the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) at the University of Utah. This agency does economic work well beyond just monitoring Utah’s construction industry. But one of its main features is its construction research, and is the go-to source for tracking Utah construction permitting.
BEBR developed and maintains the Utah Construction Information Database, an online database of construction permitting, with geographic analysis by state, county, city, and building type, with data reaching back to 1975. The current data is ongoing monthly summaries, with only a two-month lag on the timing, offering a current snapshot of the future of home building activity in Utah.
The database is user-interactive. There are ten tables to choose from, with the user determining the time periods or dates that they wish to evaluate. The various tables offer views of a cumulative total of permits, or monitoring permits by dwelling type, and these can be viewed as either monthly data, or year-to-date totals.
Home building is not the only construction variable that BEBR monitors and makes available. Nonresidential construction values are also presented, although government projects are generally not included in the accounting (as many government projects do not need permitting approval). This may exclude large construction projects like the former I-15 rebuild through Salt Lake County, or the upcoming NSA data processing center slated for construction at Camp Williams. But even with these exclusions, the nonresidential construction valuation offers a useful picture of the state of
nonresidential construction in Utah.
The total valuation in nonresidential activity is presented, not the number of projects, because one large project can be of more value than many small projects. Whereas the number of residential housing projects and the total valuation of residential projects are closely correlated, that relationship does not often hold on the nonresidential side. Any given nonresidentialproject can have a very wide range to its valuation. So ten small projects in one period can be overshadowed in importance by one very large project in a different period.
Utah is waiting for its economic lifelines to revive and pull it out of the deep national recession. Home building will have to be an important part of that equation. When will that occur? Analysts can make estimates as to when that may happen, but when it does, the permit numbers on the BEBR Construction Information Database will be one of the first places to reveal it.
The University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) web site is the go-to source for tracking Utah construction permitting at http://www.bebr.utah.edu/.
When will home building in Utah revive? The database will be one of the first places to find indications.
county highlight | by john krantz, economist
Daggett County
Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Utah, Daggett County is renowned for its beautiful scenery and recreational activities. The county is Utah’s least populated with only 941 residents in 2009.
Encompassing parts of the Ashley National Forest and Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area (pictured), over 90 percent of the land in the county is federally owned.
Virtually all economic activity is tied to Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The leisure and hospitality industries account for 30 percent of total annual employment, and these industries include not only restaurants and accommodations, but recreational services for activities such as boating, rafting, and fishing as well.
The largest employer in the county is the government. More than a third of all employment is dedicated to the public administration of government services. Many of these workers are employed to operate and protect Flaming Gorge Dam. Another 13 percent of total employment is devoted to providing elementary and secondaryeducational services.
rate update | workforce information
June 2010 Unemployment Rates
Changes From Last Year
Utah Unemployment Rate 7.2 % Up 0.4 points
U.S. Unemployment Rate 9.5 % Up 0.0 points
Utah Nonfarm Jobs (000s) 1,202.2 Up 1.0 %
U.S. Nonfarm Jobs (000s) 131,456.0 Down 0.05 %
June 2010 Consumer Price Index Rates
U.S. Consumer Price Index 218.0 Up 1.1%
U.S. Producer Price Index 179.1 Up 5.5%
Source: Utah Department of Workforce Services
June 2010 Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rates by County
Beaver 9.3 %
Box Elder 8.3 %
Cache 5.0 %
Carbon 7.2 %
Daggett 6.6 %
Davis 6.5 %
Duchesne 6.8 %
Emery 7.5 %
Garfield 9.9 %
Grand 10.1 %
Iron 8.7 %
Juab 9.7 %
Kane 7.2 %
Millard 5.9 %
Morgan 7.2 %
Piute 6.0 %
Rich 5.2 %
Salt Lake 6.7 %
San Juan 12.0 %
Sanpete 8.4 %
Sevier 7.5 %
Summit 7.3 %
Tooele 7.6 %
Uintah 6.5 %
Utah 6.8 %
Wasatch 8.6 %
Washington 9.3 %
Wayne 8.8 %
Weber 7.9 %
Watch for these features in our Next Issue:
Theme: A Review of the Recent Economic Downturn
County Highlight: Carbon
Occupation: Telemarketer