The Hinckley Institute Radio Hour (Original Air Date: April 14, 2019)— This week on the program, we bring you a forum that looks at distressed rural economies in Utah, the economic and geographic challenges that tend to constrain their growth, and what those rural communities can do to revive their economies.
Challenges facing rural Utah include population decline stimulated by limited opportunities for jobs and career development, often forcing families to break apart as members graduating high school leave their rural communities for better economic opportunities in urban areas of the state.
In July, during the National Governors Association Summer Meeting held in Salt Lake City, Governor Herbert laid out his goal of 25,000 new jobs in rural Utah by 2020, claiming the state was on target with 20,000 jobs already in place. To potentially close the gap, the creation of the Chamber Rural Workforce Network was announced this month at the Utah Rural Summit in a partnership between the Salt Lake Chamber, the Department of Workforce Services and the Economic Development Corporation of Utah. The Chamber Rural Workforce Network will seek to address the employment problems and geographic limitations of rural Utah by connecting employers with rural labor markets, bringing economic opportunities that are usually limited to the Wasatch Front, where eighty percent of current Utah jobs reside.
Speaking on the panel: Ginger Chin, Managing Director of Urban and Rural Business Services for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development; Shawn Milne, Commissioner of Tooele County; Nick Tatton, Community Director of Price City; Moderating the discussion is Theresa Foxley, President and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah.
This week’s forum was recorded on February 25th, 2019.
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