Utah's C-19 job market best in nation

Utah’s job market has endured the coronavirus better than any other state. That’s according to a new report released last week by MoneyRates.com.

The report analyzed job market conditions in every state and the District of Columbia based on four factors. Included in the analysis were the unemployment rate, the change in the unemployment rate since coronavirus lockdowns began, exposure to industry sectors that have been most vulnerable to lockdowns and the number of job seekers per most recently reported number of job openings in each state.

Based on the analysis, Utah’s job market is best weathering COVID-19 economic challenges. While the average state unemployment rate has surged to more than 14 percent, Utah’s is 9.7 percent. It also has just 1.3 job seekers for every opening and its job market is less dependent on highly vulnerable industries than those of most states. Utah was buoyed by ranking among the 10 best states in each of the study’s four categories.

Kansas was second to Utah, followed by Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Indiana and Virginia (tie), Arizona, Colorado and North Dakota.

While all job markets have suffered from the crisis, conditions vary greatly from state to state based on the sectors that drive their economies. For context, the industry sectors hardest hit by job losses (as a percentage) since the end of February are leisure and hospitality; construction; trade, transportation and utilities; education and health services; and other services, which includes things like hair salons and auto repair shops.

The results help point to each state’s ability, or lack thereof, to withstand the pandemic. For example, South Dakota has just over one job seeker for every opening while Washington state has over five job seekers for every opening.

While the average state saw unemployment rates increase by more than 12 percent since February, the numbers spiked by more than 20 percent in Washington, Michigan and Nevada. For scale, unemployment rates range from a low of 5.6 percent in South Dakota to a high of 23.52 percent in Nevada.

“Some types of jobs are much more affected than others,” said Richard Barrington, senior financial analyst for MoneyRates.com and the study’s author. “Jobs that can be done in wide-open spaces or are information-based and can be conducted remotely have held up relatively well. Those that are travel-based or hands-on services have been hardest-hit. Some states have much higher concentrations of the hardest-hit jobs than others.”