Jobless rate just keeps dropping

Another month and another record-low for Utah’s unemployment rate. The Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS) reported that the jobless rate for November dropped slightly again from October to 2.1 percent, the lowest since records have been kept. The seasonally adjusted rate means approximately 34,500 Utahns are still unemployed.

Continuing the DWS’s recent practice of comparing current employment number with those of two years ago due to the pandemic, Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment for November increased an estimated 3.6 percent in the past 24 months, with the state’s economy adding a cumulative 57,900 jobs since November 2019. Utah’s current employment level stands at 1,646,900, DWS reported.

“While the supply of available labor keeps shrinking, the Utah economy continues to grow,” said Mark Knold, chief economist at the Department of Workforce Services. “These seem like contradictory forces, yet the Utah economy continues to expand. Utah leads the nation in job growth. Our economy cannot grow like this unless it is finding the labor it needs. So far that challenge is being met.”

Utah’s November private-sector employment recorded a two-year expansion of 4.7 percent. Eight of Utah’s 10 major private-sector industry groups posted net two-year job gains, led by trade, transportation and utilities (up 21,100 jobs); professional and business services (up 16,800 jobs); construction (up 9,400 jobs); and manufacturing (up 8,300 jobs). The two industry groups with less employment than two years ago are leisure and hospitality services (down 1,600 jobs) and natural resources and mining (down 900 jobs).