Service-related job openings on rise

But several board members said the dozens of figures in the study — available at jobs.utah.gov/opencms/wi/pubs/jvs2008 — show Utah needs to do more to train young people for the jobs that are available. Talley said workers in occupations experiencing a slowdown — for example, construction — do not have the training needed to move into an industry with labor needs, such as health care.

Sixty-six percent of the metro job openings required some form of postsecondary training, led by health care. Nurses, both registered and licensed-vocational, and nursing aides accounted for 43 percent of the vacancies.

But training more Utahns apparently has hurdles. Board member Jack Brittain, vice president for technology venture development and dean of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, said more students could be in the business school if the university had more faculty and more classrooms.

"We're just not funded (enough) to teach them," he said.

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