Jobless rate back up a bit in August

Utah’s jobless rate crept up slightly in August to 2.5 percent, a one-tenth of one percentage-point increase from July’s 2.4 percent, according to figures released by the Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS).

August’s nationwide unemployment took a more significant three-tenths of a percentage point rise to 3.8 percent.

Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment for August increased an estimated 2.5 percent over the past 12 months, with the state’s economy adding a cumulative 41,400 jobs since August 2022. Utah’s current job count stands at 1,725,100, the department said.

“The Utah economy remains strong and viable. Anyone who desires to work should find employment,” said Mark Knold, chief economist at DWS. “The job market is still attractive. But a reduction in online job postings is a sign that the Utah job market has slowed from its red-hot pace of the past two years. Job postings greatly outnumbered the available labor supply over the past two years, creating a wide gap between available jobs and worker supply. Within the past two months, however, the level of job postings has slowed, but it is still higher than Utah’s historically-normal job-posting level.”

Utah’s August private-sector employment recorded a year-over-year expansion of 2.3 percent, adding 33,300 jobs. Eight of the 10 major private-sector industry groups posted net year-over-year job gains. The overall job gains are led by leisure and hospitality services (up 16,300 jobs), education and health services (up 9,400 jobs), other services (up 3,700 jobs) and construction (up 2,000 jobs). The two sectors with job losses are trade/transportation/utilities, which lost 1,000 jobs, and manufacturing with a 300-job drop.

Additional employment data tables and analysis, including county unemployment rates, can be accessed at https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/update/index.html.