June and the Coyotes was one of the many businesses welcomed to the Castle Country area in 2018. The Carbon County Chamber of Commerce welcomed the new business with a ribbon cutting ceremony in June.
Castle Country has not slowed down in recent months in terms of growth, change and productivity. According to the Department of Workforce Services (DWS), 420 new non-farm jobs were seen in Carbon County over the last year, which is a 4.9% growth. In comparison, Emery County welcomed in 191 new jobs with a growth percentage of 6.2.
“Led by the mining sector, Carbon County’s economy showed strong expansion in the first three quarters of 2018,” DWS reported. “Though a portion of the first quarter job growth occurred because of industry and location recoding, Carbon County is seeing healthy job gains.”
The DWS report stated that for Emery County, the education, healthcare and social assistance industry saw a 152% climb in employment over the last year. Subsequently, the education, healthcare and professional services industries saw the biggest decrease in Carbon County with a negative percentage of 4.9. Between those sectors alone, nearly 70 jobs were lost in the area.
“After a dipping into job loss territory in late 2017, Emery County started creating new hobs once again in the first quarter of 2018,” DWS shared. “The unemployment rate has generally plateaued since the final months of 2017.”
Occupational projections for the long-term in Eastern Utah predict 228,380 annual openings with a 2.9% growth rate. Office and administrative support, food preparation and serving and sales were the three job categories with the highest predicted annual openings at 37,440, 25,810 and 25,300 openings, respectively. Life, physical and social science, farming, fishing and forestry, and legal were the three categories with the lowest openings predicted with small numbers of just 1,530, 1,260 and 880, respectively.
In Eastern Utah as a whole, year-over-year job estimates rose with an estimated change of more than 1,000 jobs from this time last year. Aside from Duchesne, job postings have risen significantly for all counties within Eastern Utah.
“Castle Country non-farm employment counts are up by over 600 jobs from this time last year. Unemployment rates are at sustainable levels, just below five percent,” stated Hope Morrow, Regional Labor Economist. “Both construction permitting and gross taxable sales were on the rise last year, great indicators for the Castle Country economy. Overall, the region is performing well and is expecting viable growth in coming years.”