For February of 2024, Utah’s employment summary was released by the Department of Workforce Services (DWS). Beginning the report, DWS stated that Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment for February increased an estimated 1.9% and the state’s economy added a cumulative 32,600 jobs since February of 2023.
Currently, the job count for Utah is at 1,735,300, while February’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was estimated to be 2.8%. There is approximately 51,000 Utahns that are unemployed, leaving the unemployment rate from January unrevised.
Mark Knold, Chief Economist at the DWS, stated that the Utah economy continues to grow at a slower pace than what was witnessed the year before.
“The supply of labor provided by domestic labor migrating to Utah over the past several years allowed the state’s economy to grow faster than what the state’s low unemployment rate should otherwise have allowed,” stated Knold. “However, this domestic in-migration has now slowed and the state’s low unemployment rate is constraining faster growth.”
Knold explained that, with that data, Utah’s job growth pace has moderated toward the national average.
Moving to the growth, or lack thereof, in each sector, a year-over-year expansion of 1.4% was found in the private sector employment for February. This equates to a 19,800 job increase, with seven of the ten major private sector industry groups posting net year-over-year job gains.
These gains overall are led by education and health services with 9,600 jobs, followed by construction with 6,900 jobs. Professional and business services and leisure and hospitality also saw growth, while three sectors had job losses. They were financial activities, information and trade, transportation and utilities.