Rural Utah was in an employment drought.
In 2017, the median unemployment rate among the state’s rural residents was 5.6%, compared with 3.1% for urban residents. Median salaries were also lower in Utah’s rural counties than they were in the big cities because high-paying rural jobs are scarce. B ut rural Utah is just as rich in talent as the state’s urban centers. The problem is that the work and income opportunities have been unevenly distributed. In 2018, Utah State University Extension set out to change that when it launched the Rural
Dr. Paul Hill, USU Extension professor
Online Initiative (ROI), a training and certification program that teaches people how to become effective remote workers and how to search for remote jobs. The ROI program also certifies Utah business leaders to become effective leaders of remote employees, giving them access to a deeper pool of job candidates.
3
Powered by FlippingBook