Workforce
office, Cache planners to share employment data for
transportation forecasts
By Miriah Griffith
February 7, 2007 | CACHE COUNTY -- The Department
of Workforce Services and Cache Technical Advisory Committee
will now be sharing information with each other after
the Cache Metropolitan Planning Organization approved
the agreement Monday evening.
Last year the CTAC had to get legislation passed after
DWS refused to give out employment information, said
Transportation Planner Jeff Gilbert.
"We need that information in order to effectively
project where Cache Valley will be growing the most,
and where we need to plan on constructing new transportation
routes," he said. The legislation was passed in
2006.
The DWS was hesitant to give out information for two
reasons, said Gilbert. First, the CATC was not officially
recognized as authorized to receive the information.
Secondly, competing businesses don't want data on their
employee ratios accessible to the competition.
"We couldn't, by law, release discrete data for
individual companies," said Department of Workforce
Labor Market Economist John Matthews. "There are
administrative rules that we have to follow."
Matthews added that data can be given in ranges to
the public.
"With the information they give us, we could tell
a business how many employees they have," said Gilbert.
"At the point that information is made public, it's
problematic."
The legislation stipulates that information on any
zone with three or fewer employers cannot be published
because it could be easily deducted which statistics
match up with which business.
Gilbert said all zones the CTAC studies have well
over three employers. "The way we use the data isn't
necessarily specific to individual businesses, so it's
not a problem," he said.
Under the new agreement, DWS sends CTAC raw, unanalyzed
data on employment in Cache Valley, from which the CTAC
can project growth and transportation needs in what
they call travel-to-man models. The raw numbers, as
opposed to ranges, increase the accuracy of projections.
The models take into account socio-economic data,
including housing, employment and population, said Gilbert.
Mayor David Kooyman of Hyde Park moved to approve
the agreement. Mayor Cary Watkins, North Logan, seconded
the motion. The vote was unanimous.
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