OCR Text |
Show It is generally true that older neighborhoods have fewer persons per household than the newer urban areas. This is clearly the fact in Salt Lake County today. Salt Lake City has the smallest family size; Big Cottonwood, the new growth area of a decade ago has begun to show aging trends and family size is decreasing as children become young adults and leave home; Hunter- Granger and the Sandy area have the highest family size due to young families who are finding new homes in these areas. Some leveling off of family size may occur in the future. Salt Lake City appears to be making a successful effort to bring back families into the City and, as new housing becomes more expensive, the older areas may become more attractive to young families again. However, the general trend of the past will probably continue with modifications. This is recognized in the projection of the population and its distribution for 1985 and 1995; higher family sizes are assigned to the newly developing southern areas than in the older sections of the County. Labor Force As family sizes become smaller, the percent of the population in the labor force becomes greater. Another factor responsible for the rising percentage is the fact that the female labor force participation rate is increasing and is projected to increase at a higher rate in the future. Total employment has risen at a most satisfactory rate in the Valley for the past few years. Although the gains were less last year than had been anticipated, employment growth continued in Utah and Salt Lake County while some parts of the country showed absolute declines in employment. However, the compounded annual growth rate in employment appears to be declining and this is reflected in the population projections. This is a normal condition of expanding economic areas. fuelling Units The number of families or households rather than total population dictates the number of dwelling units needed. The table below projects 37 |