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Show Government Accounts for One Of Three Non-farm Jobs in Utah Federal, state and local employment em-ployment now accounts for nearly one out of every three nonfarm jobs in Utah. This fact was brought out in a study just completed by Utah Foundation the private governmental gov-ernmental research organization. organiza-tion. The Utah Foundation report discloses that In April, 1967, there were 100,400 persons employed em-ployed by government agencies agen-cies in Utah. This was equal to 30.3'i of the 331,200 employees em-ployees listed on non agricultural agricul-tural payrolls in Utah. If workers emDloved bv eovern- ployed among the 11 Western States and third among the 50 states in the nation in the proportion pro-portion of its nonfarm workforce work-force employed by government govern-ment agencies. Only Alaska and New Mexico top Utah in the percentage of government employment. If government employment is related to total population, Utah is found to have nearly 107c of its total inhabitants working directly for Federal, state, or local government agencies. ag-encies. Foundation analysts point ment-oriented defense firms, such as the missile Industry, are included, approximately 33 of Utah's workforce are now employed in direct government gov-ernment or government-related jobs. "Most of the growth in new employment opportunities In recent years," according to the Foundation report, "has occurred occur-red in the government sector of the economy." Government employment has accounted for 65 of the new jobs in Utah during the past year and 55 of the total employment gain since 1960. The study shows that Utah ranks second in proportion of its nonfarm workforce em- our mat a "major iactor in this high proportion of government gov-ernment employment in Utah is the large number of persons per-sons working for the Federal Government." Only Alaska has a higher percentage of federal employment. Utah also ranks well above the national average in the proportion of its population employed by state and local government. The State, however, how-ever, is about the average of the 11 Western States and is slightly below the average of the eight Mountain States in this measure. The report Indicates that because be-cause of Utah's large educational educa-tional load both at the public pub-lic school and college level education is the state and local lo-cal activity requiring the largest lar-gest number of employees. In October, 1966, there were 255 educational employees per 10,-000 10,-000 population in Utah a rate 35 above the U. S. average, aver-age, 22 above the average of the 11 Western States, and 9 higher than the average of the eight Mountain States. Although Utah is above the U. S. average in the ratio of state and local employees for education, highways, and natural nat-ural resources, it is below the national average for public welfare, hospitals, police and fire protection, along with many of the other activities usually performed by local governments. The Foundation report cautions, however, that because of varying demands and the need for different types of government services, such comparisons by themselves them-selves are not a reliable indicator indi-cator of over-or under-staffing by government agencies. |