The Park City Chamber/Bureau has launched an online survey that will provide a telling look into the state of the business community nearly three years after the pandemic-forced shutdowns and amid continuing strength in the local economy.
One of the survey questions is especially noteworthy as the Chamber/Bureau seeks to learn the importance of a series of issues to businesses. The question asks survey takers to rank the topics on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 indicating the topic is not at all important and 10 being an indication of extreme importance.
The topics cover issues the business community, and local governments, have struggled to solve over the years. Some are seen as crucial to recruiting and retaining employees while others are overarching themes for businesses.
The answers to two of the topics, closely related, will provide a key reading for business owners, managers and the workforce. The Chamber/Bureau inquires about the importance of the labor supply and as well as the importance of affordable or employee housing.
Park City-area businesses draw their labor supply from Summit County, Wasatch County and points farther away, like the Wasatch Front. There is also usually a large contingent of foreign workers in Park City during the ski season. Some businesses have struggled to recruit workers, though, and the troubles seemed to become more pronounced during the pandemic. There is a belief workers who live outside the immediate Park City area have become less inclined to commute for employment opportunities in the tourism industry, which are traditionally toward the lower end of the pay scale.
The availability of affordable or employee housing in the Park City area is closely linked to the topic of labor supply. Park City’s resort-driven real estate and rental markets have priced out many workers, meaning they may search elsewhere for places to live and then reconsider the commute. Even with housing progress by City Hall and others, the costs are prohibitive for a large bloc of the workforce. That is believed to act to reduce the labor supply and impact the efforts to recruit workers.
Labor issues have not appeared to be as pronounced this winter as they were in the 2021-2022 ski season, when there were widespread employee shortages in Park City. The recruitment and retention difficulties of that winter stretched across a wide swath of Park City’s tourism-related sectors, leading to concern about the guest experience.
Other topics in the Chamber/Bureau survey broach issues that are part of the civic dialogue and are heavily debated inside and outside the business community. The survey inquires about parking, childcare and the related topics of mental wellness and substance abuse, as well as climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion.
The survey, meanwhile, covers several broad economic themes. The Chamber/Bureau wants to learn about local opinions of the international and national economies, the access to capital and the supply chain.
“We’re always looking for ways to better serve our members, stakeholders and the entire community, and therefore, we value feedback and suggestions,” Jennifer Wesselhoff, the president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau, said in a prepared statement. “The Summit County Business Survey allows us to garner important information on programs, priorities and issues facing our business community and serves as our guidepost for future programs, member benefits and more.”
The survey is available at: https://rrcassociates.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cAAUpxoMc8N5sEK. The Chamber/Bureau encourages people to complete it by Friday.