For the second consecutive month, Utah’s unemployment rate inched up one-tenth of a percentage point to 3 percent in June, according to data released by the Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS). Prior to May, the jobless rate had stayed steady since late 2023. June’s figure translates to about 54,300 Utahns still looking for work.
The national June jobless rate also increased slightly to 4.1 percent.
Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment for June increased an estimated 2.4 percent since June 2023, with the state’s economy adding a cumulative 41,400 jobs since. Utah’s current job count stands at 1,766,500, the department said.
“The June numbers show another month of robust jobs growth,” said Ben Crabb, chief economist at DWS. “For the last year, job expansion has been concentrated in construction, private education and health services and the public sector. Public-sector hiring is now starting to cool and the unemployment rate, while low, has been slowly ticking upward. With inflation trending in the right direction, an interest rate cut later this year is not out of the question and would stimulate continued job growth in the state.”
Utah’s June private-sector employment recorded a year-over-year expansion of 2.1 percent, or a 31,300-job increase. Seven of the 10 major private-sector industry groups posted net year-over-year job gains. The overall gains are led by education and health services (up 13,000 jobs), professional and business services (up 7,900 jobs) and construction (up 5,700 jobs). Financial activities with a 400-job loss and information services (down 500 jobs) were the only sectors with year-over-year job losses.
Additional employment data tables and analysis, including county unemployment rates, can be accessed at https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/update/index.html.