By Mark Knold, Supervising Economist, and Cory Stahle, Regional Economist
The labor force is made up of people. People vary in every
conceivable way. One person is artistic while another can only draw stick
people. One person might be able to disassemble and reassemble a car engine
while another might not know what an alternator is. We are different. We have
different aptitudes and abilities.
Parallel to this variability, jobs are different. High
levels of education do make it possible to work in high-skill occupations that
return high incomes. But not everyone is cut out for higher education or has
the means to obtain higher education. Therefore, they might end up in “lesser”
or “unimportant” jobs.
But is that accurate? Are their job options inferior and
unimportant? A recent Brookings
Institution report brings to light a segment of the economy that is highly
important yet is dependent upon the labor force that may not be built for, have
the economic means, or desire to attain a college degree or higher.
Brookings identifies a niche they call the infrastructure
economy. As Brookings notes, “Infrastructure helps facilitate the exchange of
information, drive production, and deliver resources, spanning multiple sectors
of the economy and serving as a foundation to long-term growth.” It goes
further to note that “Infrastructure jobs depend on a steady stream of talent
to construct, operate, design, and govern the country’s major physical assets.” (article continues below)
**Filter the viz below to see information on the infrastructure jobs in your area**
Brookings also documents why these
infrastructure jobs can appeal to the individual. “Infrastructure occupations
also boast competitive wages with relatively low barriers to entry, frequently
paying up to 30 percent more to workers with a high school diploma or less
compared to those in all other occupations. Plumbers, truck mechanics, and
power line installers are among the numerous infrastructure occupations that
fall into this category, which tend to emphasize on-the-job training rather than
higher levels of formal education.”
Brookings identified 95 occupations that support the
infrastructure foundation. Their work was well founded and designed. This
intrigued us to develop a profile of said infrastructure configuration for the
Utah economy. We could not replicate the Brookings work in terms of finalizing
upon infrastructure industries, but we could place our focus instead upon all infrastructure
occupations.
Infrastructure occupations do not have to be found in only
infrastructure industries. A helicopter pilot, an infrastructure occupation,
may fly a medical helicopter for a hospital, even though said hospital is not
categorized as an infrastructure industry.
What is important is that there are occupations that
Brookings has identified as key occupations that help to keep the economy
operating, growing, designed, and governed. And a practical appeal is that many
of these jobs offer low barriers to entry while supplying competitive wages.
Across the nation, these occupations number 11.9 million, or
8.8 percent of all occupational employment. In Utah, these jobs number around
121,400, also 8.8 percent of all occupational employment. Again, the appeal of
these jobs is not just that they fundamentally support so many other jobs and
industries in the economy, but that these jobs don’t require a high level of
education or formalized training for entry. Oftentimes these occupations
emphasize only on-the-job training. Yet, these jobs pay on average 22 percent
higher in Utah than other occupations that are willing to accept only a high
school diploma or less.
Utah does have its unique structuring across its different
geographic regions, and this will include the possibility of a different
profile of the Infrastructure economy in each local region. The following is an
infrastructure profile for the Salt Lake City metropolitan statistical area
(MSA).
Salt Lake City MSA
In this area, which includes Salt Lake and Tooele counties,
infrastructure occupations number about 63,500, or 9.4 percent of all
occupational employment. By the year 2024, these jobs are projected to increase
to nearly 79,000, producing an estimated 2,900 new jobs annually. This total
increase translates to a 10-year growth rate of 24.8 percent, slightly above
the projected growth for all occupations.
Another way to analyze infrastructure occupations is through
the use of location quotients. Location quotients act as a measure of relative
employment concentration by comparing the share of employment in a local area (Salt
Lake City MSA in this case) to the nation.
Upon applying location quotients, we find that the concentration
of total infrastructure employment is higher in the Salt Lake City MSA relative
to the United States. This higher proportion of employment is manifested in
several occupations. Among these are reservation and transportation
agents/clerks, transportation inspectors, air traffic controllers, transit and
railroad police, aircraft cargo handling supervisors and gas compressor/gas
pumping station operators.
As mentioned, infrastructure jobs assist in designing,
operating, growing and governing the economy. The appeal of these jobs is twofold,
manifested in the form of low educational barriers to entry and higher than
average wages. Both of these factors are illustrated in the Salt Lake City MSA,
as 93 percent of infrastructure employment requires education of an associate’s
degree or less and also pays 14 percent higher when compared to all jobs
requiring an associate’s degree or less.
