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Many Utah businesses have a hard time finding skilled workers to fill open positions, a Utah Foundation report said Wednesday.
A tight labor market played a key role, the report found, with the state's 3.2 percent job growth snapping up much of the available talent in a market where unemployment is down to 3.1 percent.
Other factors contributed as well, the report added, citing low wages, job desirability and skills gaps.
The non-partisan Utah Foundation, which has been studying Utah's workforce and vocational training programs since 1948 "to promote a thriving economy, a well-prepared workforce and a high quality of life for all Utahns," found that a smaller portion of the population was working or looking for a job.
After hovering around 71-72 percent for much of the 1990s and 2000s, the state's labor force participation rate is now down to 68.9 percent.
Author report and research analyst Christopher Collard said low wages make some jobs unattractive to most people. He also attributed part of the decline to Utah having far fewer women in the workforce.
"Utah has the largest differential (16.7 percentage points) between men and women in the labor force of any state. Issues such as low rates of promotion, pay gaps, parental leave, affordable quality childcare and flexible work schedules have a significant impact on women's participation in the labor force," he added. "… One targeted solution might be policies making it easier for women to participate."
The foundation determined that wages have not increased as expected given four years of below-average unemployment rates.
To build up the workforce so that it has enough skilled workers to choose from, the foundation report said the state can do more to encourage in-migration and it can do more to train its internal workforce.
A number of training programs already exist to help students graduate for high school or college with the skills that local industries need, it noted, including programs where workers may obtain the certificates and apprenticeships needed to land jobs.
That effort will be buttressed by Gov. Gary Herbert's "Talent Ready Utah" initiative launched in January with the ambitious goal of filling "40,000 new high-skill, high-paying jobs over the next four years."
The groundwork for that production is expected to come from partnerships forged between industry, government and education that connect students to training.
"Utah's stakeholders, both public and private, are really pulling together to make sure Utah workers meet industry needs," Collard wrote.