In May, the economic snapshots were updated by the Department of Workforce Services (DWS) to reflect unemployment, impact by the pandemic and more.
When reviewing the two-year change in non-farm jobs, it was apparent that the state of Utah as a whole had essentially bounced back from the pandemic setback. However, there were economic pockets in the state that had not quite recovered, with Carbon County being one of them.
“Economically, the pandemic is largely two years in the making,” shared the DWS. “The county had nearly 250 fewer jobs in December 2021 than in December 2019.”
It was discovered that job losses in the mining sector were the main cause of this. However, it was also acknowledged that coal mining has been under duress prior to the pandemic’s onset, making it difficult to pin the losses solely on the pandemic.
However, a bright light was noticed when the March 2022 seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was released for Carbon County. Initial claims for unemployment insurance, average monthly wage and the like were reviewed. It was stated that following the peak of April 2020, the unemployment rate has dropped significantly, most recently sitting at 3.0%.
“This continues the trend of Carbon County’s unemployment rate being slightly higher than the statewide average, though lower than many of the neighboring counties,” said the DWS.
Continuing, the DWS stated that after a year of sharp increases in initial unemployment claims in 2020, the levels in 2022 have fallen noticeably. This has returned the levels to the way that they were pre-pandemic.