Local Issues

At one point in time, it seemed that success was still achievable without higher education.  And then that all changed, we were told that without a degree, we wouldn’t be able to survive in the world.  As a college student myself, I wanted to dig into this further.  With the rising costs of education and living, is it really worth it?  How much student debt is OK?  How has the last few years of economic turmoil impacted the job market.  For this research, I’ll be focusing mostly in the state of Utah, and then comparing that data to national averages.

This is just a preliminary stage of my research.  I’ll list six resources that I’ve found to help me get started. 

Bureau of Labor Statistics (Unemployment rate for the Country):  http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

Forbes Profile for Utah:
http://www.forbes.com/places/ut/

Average Cost for Tuition and Fees (2012-2013) for the nation:
https://www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_payarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleId=10064

Average Student Loans for the nation:
http://www.asa.org/policy/resources/stats/

Unemployment Rates for the nation:
http://www.epi.org/publication/class-of-2013-graduates-job-prospects/

Estimated Debt by State:
http://projectonstudentdebt.org/state_by_state-data.php

Utah Unemployment Rate:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865576639/Utah-unemployment-decreases-far-below-national-average.html?pg=all
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/56184333-79/jobs-percent-utah-march.html.csp