Several of our past blog posts have highlighted the
statewide education levels of Utah; however, little has been written about the
educational makeup of counties and regions. The 2014 American Community Survey
(ACS), released December 2015, provides data that profiles education levels by
county. This article will focus primarily on the Wasatch Front South Region and
its counties.
Understanding educational attainment for an area is
important for two reasons. First, it is generally acknowledged that obtaining
higher education yields increased income. This increase can then improve living
standards and aid in long-term economic growth. Second, education is both a
product and driver of the types of jobs available. A highlight of the
educational characteristics in the Wasatch Front South Region follows.
According to the 2014 ACS, 31 percent of individuals 25 years and older held a
bachelor’s degree or higher in the region. Salt Lake County mirrored the region
at 31 percent while Tooele County was lower at 21 percent. When compared in the
graphic below, Salt Lake County is above the national average for bachelors and
higher and is near the state average. In contrast, Tooele County falls below
the nation and state in advanced degrees but is significantly higher in both
high school and some college/associates education. While many Tooele County
residents commute outside the county for work, lack of local employer demand
for workers with advanced education is one possible explanation for the
bachelor’s degree lag.
The Workforce Research and Analysis division has updated information in the county Annual Profiles.
The information available in these Annual Profiles are separated by county and state and include:
quick facts
nonfarm employment
unemployment
major employers
population
demographics
income and wages
construction
gross taxable sales
county rankings
This data is updated on an annual basis, and dates can be found at the
bottom of each tab. To print any of the visualizations, see the
instructions here. For more information about this data, contact your regional economist.
We are witnesses to and participants in a great demographic, economic, and cultural transformation. The dynamics driving this change originate from our increasing interconnectedness with the rest of the world, principally through markets, technology, and migrations of people. Although markets are often portrayed as mechanical processes, in reality they are ways of organizing complex networks of human actions and interactions. Our expanding connections to global financial, product, and labor markets result in our deepening global interdependencies along many dimensions. Similarly, the advance of digital technologies allows for ever-greater capacity to generate, manage, mine, and analyze information. Expanding networks of near-instantaneous communication connect us to people and ideas globally. Finally, the greater frequency and volume of long-distance migrations of people have introduced cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and intellectual diversity that has catalyzed creative synergies and new cross cultural collaborations. However, the confluence and interplay of all these dynamics is coincident with increasing economic inequality.
Inclusion has emerged as an economic indicator, according to researchers measuring the impact of change on communities.
The Salt Lake metropolitan area, consisting of Tooele, Salt Lake and Summit counties, is one of four metropolitan areas with high levels of economic growth and the ability to be inclusive across minority and demographic groups.
Areas with high levels of immigration typically have greater income disparity, researchers found, and the greater the wage gap, the less likely a region is to grow. But the Salt Lake area is among communities reaching across religious, social, racial and economic lines to generate shared knowledge and create growth across sectors. Deseret News
Long-time vendors, attendees and organizers of the Utah State Fair say the fair remains a well-attended event and a relevant venue today for Utah-owned businesses trying to get their names in the public eye.
Far away from the food realm, Clay Zimmerman said the fair serves as the only advertising of the year for his business, High Uinta Pack Goats.
Utah State Fair executive director Clark Caras said the fair attracted 292,000 people over 11 days in 2011, and he hoped the number might surpass 300,000 in 2012. He characterized the state of the event as strong. It has finished "in the black," he said, every year in recent memory. He also pointed to the fair's ability to land acts like impersonator Frank Caliendo, Lonestar and Blues Traveler.
Caras said the fair and the 65-acre park that houses it are working to solidify and shape their future. A report recommending best use of the grounds is expected back in the next six weeks.
He expressed optimism and hope that the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food may choose to locate a new headquarters on the ground. He also said the hope would be those plans might include a center where people of various ages could learn about the state's agricultural heritage.
Department of Agriculture and Food spokesman Larry Lewis confirmed the department was desperately in need of a new building and it was on a state priority list. However, he characterized any discussions about the department's future headquarters only as "talks" and said the fair park was just one of a number of possible sites for the building.
Lewis also said it was unclear when in the future the state may green-light the project.
Neighbors who live around the fair park expressed their hopes that the site would thrive in the future. Rick Clark said he gets a yearly boost by allowing people to park in his yard for a fee. KSL
And with Latinos now making up more than 13 percent of Utah’s population, what better place to showcase their culture than the Utah State Fair?
That’s the goal of the Utah State Fair Corp. and Fiesta Mexicana Inc., which are teaming up for the third year to make the annual event more appealing to the state’s fast-growing Latino population. The fair begins Thursday, Sept. 6, and runs through Sept. 16.
"This is where we celebrate our heritage. And Latinos have such an amazing part in Utah history," said Utah State Fair park Executive Director Clark Caras, beginning with the 1776 explorations of the state by two Spanish Catholic priests, Fathers Escalante and Dominguez.
While Sept. 15 will be the big day, the emphasis on Latino culture will be evident from day one of the fair when photographs by Agustín Victor Casasola go on display. Salt Lake Tribune
According to local history provided by the annual Salt Lake Greek Festival, Nicholas Kastro was the very first Greek to immigrate to this great state, sometime around 1870. And, in case you thought that with one come many, 30 years later, the 1900 census counted just three lonely Greeks who called this high desert home.
Shortly thereafter, with Salt Lake Valley becoming home to mining operations, Greeks flooded the place. By 1905, the first meetings were being held to organize the community, including a plan to build a Greek Orthodox Church. But it wasn’t until nearly 100 years after lonely Kastro settled here that the initial foundation was laid for what has become the annual Greek Festival.
Now, the event is perhaps Utah’s best-known and most popular ethnic celebration. Held in the heart of Old Greek Town, the festival has grown from a simple basement bazaar to a fullfledged, four-day celebration of all things Greek. But, besides being a great way for the Greek community to share its unique and cherished culture with the rest of us, festival liaison Alexis Chopin notes that it has become key in keeping the ever-growing Greek population tightly knit, as well. City Weekly
According to a Utah Department of Health (UDOH) survey conducted in the fall of 2010, more than 2,600 first-, second- and third-graders needed urgent dental care due to extensive tooth decay, infection and/or pain — in large part due to a lack of insurance and income to pay for the costly services.
In response to that need, Salt Lake Donated Dental Services — a nonprofit clinic that has provided dental care to the under-served of all ages since 1990 — launched its pediatric sedation program in March. It currently operates one day per month.
While using anesthesia significantly adds to the cost of the dental work, the practice makes sense for young children who are in chronic pain and can’t sit still for extended periods of time. Even X-rays are taken during sedation.
So far, 18 children have received $32,930 worth of sedation and dental treatment, including 44 fillings, 82 crowns, 31 extractions, 18 cleanings, 13 sealants and 12 fluoride varnishes.
Many of the children have been referred to the sedation program by SLCAP Head Start, which serves children up to 5 years old who live in families with incomes at or below the federal poverty level — about $23,000 a year for a family of four. The early childhood development program can accept children with family incomes up to 125 percent of that threshold. Salt Lake Tribune
As summer’s heat begins to wane and back-to-school sales are cropping up everywhere, more Utah children will struggle to be ready when classroom doors swing open later this month.
A recent KIDS COUNT Data Book for 2012 reported that about one in six Utah children now live in poverty. And Salt Lake City’s homeless shelter, the Road Home, is bursting at the seams due to a recent influx of homeless families in need of temporary housing.
In response, two similar but unrelated campaigns are under way to help low-income children gear up for the coming school year.
"We want to ensure that every child at the Road Home has the needed clothing and supplies for back-toschool,"
Intrepid owner Chris Thomas, organizer of this year’s Road Home Apple Tree campaign, said in a statement.
"It is as simple as purchasing an extra item or two when you do your back-to-school shopping," Thomas added.
In mid-July, the "apple trees" sprouted at 35 DownEast, Payless ShoeSource, Salt Lake Area Staples, Sanctuary Day Spa and Intrepid sites between Ogden and Provo. The campaign began with the names, needs and sizes of 70 children, but organizers have since had to add 72 more. Salt Lake Tribune
For members of Utah’s Vietnamese community, Tom Huynh’s election to the West Valley City Council last year was a turning point.
For decades, they’d been running businesses, sending their children to school, making sacrifices to support their families, helping out their neighbors and assimilating into American life while still preserving their culture.
And in the past few years, they were talking about the need for a business organization. On May 12, community members and their supporters gathered at the New East Sea Plaza in West Valley City to launch the Utah Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce (UVACC).
The timing was historic, just a few months after Huynh, a native of Vietnam and the first minority member of the West Valley City Council, began his term. Salt Lake Tribune
Utah Transit Authority ridership increased 34.1 percent during the first quarter of the year compared to the same time frame a year ago, thanks to the opening of two new TRAX lines and higher gas prices.
The Utah Transit Authority reports Salt Lake City had the nation's second biggest increase in ridership for light rail in the country, second only to Memphis at 45.7 percent. The increase in FrontRunner ridership was in the top 10 nationwide for commuter rail, at 8.5 percent, ninth in the country.
A new report from the American Public Transportation Association crunched the numbers for 27 light-rail systems across the country. Twenty-five of the 27 reported increased ridership. When combining bus, light rail and commuter rail service, public transportation ridership jumped 5 percent in the first quarter of 2012 over the first three months of 2011. The combined service increase for UTA year over year was 7.5 percent. Deseret News
More and more adults are hitting the books in this economy to switch careers or to gain vertical leverage at their existing jobs. But in these summer months, kickin’ around some knowledge can simply be about personal enrichment. Programs, classes and workshops can expand upon your interests while simultaneously sparking new hobbies and friendships.
There’s a wide selections of offerings from various institutions around the valley, from the University of Utah’s Lifelong Learning courses—which can run upward of $100 and last for several weeks—to one-off foodie-school events at Tony Caputo’s Market & Deli. More vocation-oriented classes can be found at Salt Lake Community College, while informal, dirt-cheap—and literally in the dirt—workshops from Wasatch Community Gardens can encourage would-be green thumbs to garden. City Weekly
In Utah, the Conservation Corps Bilingual Youth Corps based at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, will expand its Bilingual Youth Corps by hiring 36 bilingual high school students over a two-year period to help complete 50 miles of wilderness trail maintenance and habitat restoration on 135 acres of public lands on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, the Salt Lake Watershed and along the Jordan River Parkway. KCSG Television
After raising nine children, Muna Ali discovered a new way to keep occupied: the crispness of chicken sambousas, the spice of tabbouleh and the nutty sweetness of baklava. For years, she wanted to start a restaurant, but refugees like her, with limited education and capital, find that dream hard to realize.
Now Salt Lake County is guiding her and two other refugee women toward small business success as their fledgling catering businesses explode.
"It’s growing so fast I don’t know if I could manage it any longer," said Ze Min Xiao, the county’s refugee services liaison.
The 2-year-old Ethnic Kitchen Alliance gives the women from the Sudan, Iraq and the Congo a chance to use their well-honed cooking skills to help pay the bills.
"I [don’t] have high education to work like you," Ali said last week as she prepared lunch for a Utah Department of Health retreat.
Refugees, who are legal immigrants, arrive in Utah by the hundreds each year. Employment can sometimes be elusive. Some are illiterate in any language. Their English skills may initially be nonexistent. But the U.S. refugee program is geared toward self-sufficiency, so adults are expected to become wage earners as soon as possible.
About half of the refugees who are resettled in Utah through Catholic Community Services find work within six months. Those jobs are often in housekeeping, janitorial, laundry and similar fields. One of the county’s goals is to help refugees draw on their current skills, which for many women includes cooking delicious food.
The county takes orders for the women, helps with invoicing, marketing and scheduling while making sure the cooks have the adequate permits and facilities to prepare the food. They have to cook in a commercial grade kitchen such as the Horizonte Instruction and Training Center, not at home, and have a food handler’s permit. Salt Lake Tribune
In 2011, lawmakers passed a bill that was supposed to make it easier for low-income families, senior citizens and disabled residents to apply for housing vouchers in Salt Lake, Weber and Utah counties.
But more than a year later, the housing agencies still haven’t come up with the one-stop, uniform online application forms required by the new law — and Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville and sponsor of HB489, asked officials last week to explain why to the Workforce Services Interim Committee.
In Salt Lake County, for example, someone in need of housing help still has to file separate applications with the Housing Authority of the County of Salt Lake, the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City and West Valley City Housing Authority.
West Valley City’s application is 19 pages long and asks questions about everything from income and expenses to credit and criminal history. The county uses a two-page form to gather essentially the same information, while Salt Lake City has a four-page form.
Many applicants rely on public transportation and don’t have access to computers; having to travel from place to place to fill out applications is a hardship, Froerer said.
Housing officials attribute the delay to cost, technical challenges and a misunderstanding about what was required by the new law. One even questions the need given thousands of people are already on housing lists and face waits of up to five years. Salt Lake Tribune
It’s more than a name: The switch to the name "Salt Lake City-West Valley City" to describe Utah’s largest urban area also could be an economic boost.
Jonny Arbuckle, general manager of Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City, said the addition makes the state’s second-largest city even more prominent. National retailers will take note of the name, he said, as they look at demographics when trying to decide where to set up shop.
West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder said the change means his city’s name is in the statistical data that businesses consult. And Alan Anderson, ChamberWest president and CEO, said sharing billing shows that West Valley City is part of an area that includes the benefits and amenities of Salt Lake County. Salt Lake Tribune
Provo has the fourth lowest levels of economic segregation in the U.S., which translates into smaller gaps in elementary school test scores between low- and high-income students, according to a study from the Brookings Institute Metropolitan Policy Program, an organization working to provide economic and demographic research on metropolitan areas.
Salt Lake and Ogden-Clearfield are also among the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas where housing costs near high-scoring schools is not much different than property near low-scoring ones, which contributes to low elementary test-score gaps, according to the study.
Housing in the Provo-Orem area is 1.4 times more expensive near high-performing schools rather than low-performing alternatives compared to the national average of 2.2 times more. That means a low-income family in Provo would have to pay $4,921 more to move closer to a high-scoring school. This low gap has resulted in only a 14.1 percentile point spread in state-mandated test scores between low-income, which is defined as those who qualify for reduced lunch, and middle/high-income students. That’s lower than the national average of 26 percentage points between low income and high-income students.
The Provo-Orem metro area had the lowest housing-cost gap in the state, and the third lowest in the country, according to the Brookings report. Deseret News
Millcreek is about to get a community center designed to meet the divergent needs of its varied population.
A senior center, a library and a recreation center will be united under one roof when the new Millcreek Community Center opens at 10 a.m. Wednesday at 2266 E. Evergreen Ave. (3435 South).
A library and a rec center formerly occupied the site of the community center. Old and small, both have been expanded and modernized in this community center. The library’s collection of materials has grown by 50,000 items to 122,000, Cooper said, while workout rooms now have state-of-the-art equipment.
What makes this community center different is its inclusion of a senior center. While Millcreek has plenty of young families, the east-central community also has one of the valley’s highest proportions of seniors, so it was only fitting to have a facility for them, said County Aging Services Director Sarah Brenna.
The three operations are linked by a walking/running track that weaves around the second story of the 64,000-square-foot building, overlooking a gym with six hoops for basketball and curving around a kids’ reading room. The track’s walls feature numerous windows, offering striking views of Mount Olympus and Evergreen Park (still under reconstruction).
Just as the walkway unites all three functions, county officials hope it will produce population mixes in which, for instance, it won’t be unusual for an old-timer to be teaching a kid how to play billiards, while in another room a 12-year-old will be providing seniors with instruction on how to use Facebook, said senior center supervisor Bev Uipi. The Millcreek Center will continue one of the main functions of senior centers — ensuring that seniors receive nutritious lunches. But the format will be different from the others, Brenna said, with food coming from a café open to all.
Technology will abound in the new center, particularly in the library, which will be twice as big as its predecessor. Two dozen computers will be available for the public, a few more have been set up in tutoring rooms, and library branch manager Suzanne Tronier made sure that electrical outlets were installed near seating areas so visitors can use their own laptops.
Because Millcreek residents are so fond of their area’s namesake creek and canyon, architect Kenner Kingston said the building incorporates both elements in its design. A symbolic stream flows through the library, while the café is in its lowest area, the canyon bottom. Two other noteworthy art features: Pieces of the old gym floor decorate some of the internal walls, while another wall is covered with a colorful spiral of gym shoes. Salt Lake Tribune
The first-ever Utah Veterans & Families Summit is March 30 at the Salt Palace Convention Center, and will be free of charge to those attending.
There also will be a job fair for veterans in conjunction with the summit, said Terry Schow, executive director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs. Among the workshop topics are divorce, finances, employment, communication, women veterans’ issues, mental health, resiliency and emotional isolation. Salt Lake Tribune
Women in Provo have some of the lowest average salaries in the country, according to a Forbes analysis of the 2010 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. Provo women are making on average less than $37,000 a year, according to the report. Provo women are making on average less than $37,000 a year, according to the report. Deseret News
Note: Since I am interested in women's labor force issues and don't usually look at this type of data below the statewide level, I took the opportunity to look at the actual Forbes article. Forbes used 2010 American Community Survey data for "large" Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and focused on females working year-round and full-time. Unfortunately for comparative purposes, Forbes doesn't tell us what they considered a large MSA.
With median female earnings for year-round, full-time workers of $31,400, the Provo/Orem MSA ranks 249 out of 374 MSAs nationwide. Incidentally, the "smaller" MSAs of Logan and St. George showed lower female median earnings ($27,100 and $26,700, respectively). Other large Utah MSAs appear higher in the rankings--Salt Lake ranks 154, while the Ogden/Clearfield MSA ranks in the 200 spot.
However, keep in mind that areas with low female earnings might also have low earnings for both genders. In other words, an MSA's low female earnings may be reflected in low male earnings as well. Cost of living, age of the labor force, industrial mix, etc. affects wages generally. . .not just for women. In my mind, the true question perhaps should be: How do men and women's earnings compare in Utah's most populous communities?
In 2010, U.S. median earnings for women working year-round, full-time measured 78.6 percent of the comparable male figure. (This wage gap has contracted decidedly in recent decades.) How do Utah's MSAs stack up? Honestly, not so great. The Ogden/Clearfield MSA shows a female/male wage ratio of 63 percent, the Provo/Orem MSA shows 65 percent ratio. Logan's ratio measures 70 percent, and St. George's figure is 71 percent. Even in Utah's best MSA performer--Salt Lake City--the female median wage measures only 74 percent of the male median wage. More than 70 percent of the nation's MSAs show female/male wage ratios better than Salt Lake City.
What's up? Why the low female-to-male wage rations in Utah? Undoubtedly many factors come into play. However, one major influence on the large difference in wages seems to come to the forefront. I call it the "education gap" and it is a primary factor behind Utah's larger-than-average wage gap. Statistically, there is a well-know relationship behind one's earnings and one's education. In general, the higher a person's level of education, the higher their earnings.
What's the education gap? By my reckoning, it is simply the percentage point difference between the share of the male population (over 25) with at least a Bachelor's degree and the share of the female population (over 25) with at least a Bachelor's degree. Nationally, there is a six-tenths of a point difference in the share of men and women with at least a Bachelor's degree (28.5 percent and 27.9 percent, respectively). In other words, in the U.S. there is currently very little difference between the share of men and women with a four-year degree or better.
The three MSAs with the largest male/female education gap in the nation? Number 1--Provo/Orem, Utah (11.3 percentage points). Neck and Neck for the number 2 spot--St. George, Utah (9.8 percentage points) and Ogden/Clearfield, UT (9.8 percentage points). Logan's performance is somewhat better--"only" a 4.2 point difference. The Salt Lake MSA managed the smallest Utah education gap--still large at 2.5 percentage points. Every single Utah MSA ranked among the 20 percent of MSAs with the largest education gaps.
Keep in mind that in 40 percent of the nation's Metropolitan Statistical Areas, a higher percentage of women have obtained a Bachelor's degree than have men. If Utah's women are falling far behind men in educational attainment, it should come as no surprise that they are falling far behind men in earnings.
Statewide, enrollment in districts and charter schools grew by nearly 2 percent or 11,500 students this year over last, coming in below projected estimates that enrollment could increase by more than 14,700 students. According to the new numbers, 587,745 students now fill Utah’s public school classrooms.
Of all the districts in the state, Alpine saw the biggest enrollment leap. Much of the increase in Alpine is a result of growth in a number of its communities, including Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain and Lehi. Over the past 10 years, Alpine has built 19 new schools, and plans to build another six in coming years, thanks to a $210 million bond voters approved last month. Alpine now has 79 schools.
The Davis district grew by 1,665 students this school year. And Jordan, Washington, Provo, and Nebo districts saw significant increases as well, among others. But charter schools, as a group, experienced the largest growth. Enrollment at Utah’s 78 charter schools swelled to 44,892 students, an increase of 4,760 bodies, meaning about 7.6 percent of all public school students now attend charter schools, up from about 7 percent last year. Charter schools are independently run public schools. Salt Lake Tribune
