Low pay, job desirability, a skills gap and a tight employment market are contributing to a lack of qualified workers in the state workforce, a new report says.
Research from the Utah Foundation — a nonpartisan, independent policy organization — found that while the Beehive State boasts a jobless rate of 3.1 percent with annual job growth at 3.2 percent, Utah’s current labor force participation rate of 69 percent is still well below the 71 percent to 72 percent of the 1990s and early 2000s, said foundation research analyst Chris Collard, who authored “Help Wanted: Workforce Participation, Wages, Job Desirability and Skills Gap.”
He said since the Great Recession, a significant number of Utahns have dropped out of the labor force compared to other states, falling to a low point of 67.7 percent in 2012.
View Article