Utah’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has remained unchanged for four consecutive months, according to the February report released by the Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS). The latest numbers show joblessness holding steady at 2.8 percent for February, leaving approximately 51,100 Utahns unemployed.
The national February unemployment rate crept up two-tenths of a percentage point to 3.9 percent.
Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment for February 2024 increased an estimated 1.9 percent over the past 12 months, with the state’s economy adding a cumulative 32,600 jobs since February 2023, the DWS report said. Utah’s current job count stands at 1,735,300.
“The Utah economy continues to grow at a slower pace than what we saw last year,” said Mark Knold, chief economist at DWS. “The supply of labor provided by domestic labor migrating to Utah over the past several years allowed the state’s economy to grow faster than what the state’s low unemployment rate should otherwise have allowed. However, this domestic in-migration has now slowed and the state’s low unemployment rate is constraining faster growth. Therefore, Utah’s job growth pace has moderated toward the national average.”
Utah’s February private-sector employment recorded a year-over-year expansion of 1.4 percent, or a 19,800-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 9,600 jobs), construction (up 6,900 jobs), professional and business services (up 2,900 jobs) and leisure and hospitality (1,600 jobs). Three sectors with job losses are financial activities (down 2,100 jobs); information (down 800 jobs); and trade, transportation and utilities (down 300 jobs).
Additional employment data tables and analysis, including county unemployment rates, can be accessed at https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/update/index.html.