The unemployment rates for both Utah and the nation as a whole were unchanged in January, according to data release by the Utah Department of Workforce Services. January’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is estimated at 2.8 percent, the department said, leaving about 50,300 Utahns unemployed. The January national jobless rate stayed at 3.7 percent.
Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment for January 2024 increased an estimated 1.9 percent across the past 12 months, with the state’s economy adding a cumulative 32,100 jobs since January 2023. Utah’s current job count stands at approximately 1,720,900.
“Utah begins the year with continued job growth, but at a more reserved pace than seen over the past several years,” said Mark Knold, chief economist at the Department of Workforce Services. “The economy is still creating new jobs, illustrated by the over 32,000 recorded across the past year. But the amount of online job postings has slowed from recent elevated levels. The want for new workers feels like it is settling into a flow more akin to an historical norm. The high growth of the last few years was a pandemic-driven, monetary-stimulus anomaly. The sense now is the stimulus has run its course, and a return to ordinary job growth has materialized.”
Utah’s January private-sector employment recorded a year-over-year growth of 1.3 percent, or a 19,200-job increase. Seven of the 10 major private-sector industry groups posted net year-over-year job gains. The overall gains were led by education and health services (up 9,000 jobs), construction (up 5,300 jobs), professional and business services (up 2,000 jobs) and manufacturing (up 1,700 jobs). Three sectors with job losses were financial activities (down 900 jobs); information (down 200 jobs); and trade, transportation and utilities (down 100 jobs).
Additional employment data tables and analysis, including county unemployment rates, can be accessed at https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/update/index.html.