The 2008-2018 Utah Occupational Projections have been published on the DWS website. Go to http://jobs.utah.gov/wi/pubs/publicat.html and look for the Utah Job Outlook bullet where you will find projections for statewide, metro, non-metro, Cache and Washington Counties. The time horizon for the projections is 10 years and the projections are updated every other year. Projection information includes: annual growth rates, annual openings (growth, replacement, and total), inexperienced and median wages, and training level. Among the major highlights of the 2008-2018 projections are the following:
- Current projections indicate that on average each year between 2008 and 2018, Utah will grow about 2 percent and generate 64,000 openings. That’s noticeably lower than past projections and indicative of an economy recovering from recession in the early years.
- Recession-resistant healthcare-related occupations are among the fastest growing careers.
- Only one major occupational group – farming, fishing, and forestry – is expected to contract.
- The occupations with the highest employment levels (most common occupations) are retail sales workers, customer service representatives, cashiers, and fast food workers. These occupations in the top-ten account for 19 percent of total employment in Utah.
- The top-ten occupations - those with the most projected openings - are expected to account for 22 percent of all the new openings in Utah between 2008 and 2018.
- More than half the projected openings in Utah from 2008-2018 require moderate on-the-job training or less.
Lecia Parks Langston wrote two articles for Trendlines with detailed information regarding the projections (http://jobs.utah.gov/wi/pubs/trendlines/novdec10/theoutlook.pdf and http://jobs.utah.gov/wi/pubs/trendlines/janfeb11/economicnews.pdf)
