If there’s anything that makes me want to move it’s this fact: Utah’s wages are 82 percent of the national average. If only we had as many large employers as large families! The requirements of time and resources (like health insurance) to have larger families seem to be higher all the time.

A survey of nearly 2,000 Utah households along with a focus group of 55 Utahns who have filed for bankruptcy found:

• 25 percent were unemployed
• 25 percent held two or more jobs
• 90% earned less than $55,000 since filing for bankruptcy

If you have 5 kids $55K doesn’t go far. I also noticed when I was at Novell (in technical recruiting) how many very qualified college grads didn’t even consider leaving the state. So they settled for making less.

The biggest causes cited for bankruptcy: lost job, business failure, health issues, or divorce. 14% said overspending and/or credit card abuse was the problem.

Utah is #3 nationally in households per filing down from a 3-year streak at #1, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

My newspapers are piling up unread, I seem to read them online more often lately. Maybe I should change my name to webgrl.

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