The non-farm payroll employment in Utah for August 2021 showed an increase that was estimated at 3.8% across the past 24 months.
The state’s economy also added a cumulative 55,700 jobs since August of 2019 and the current employment level for Utah sits at 1,614,800. The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for the month of August came out to an estimation of 2.6%, showing that approximately 42,600 Utahns are unemployed.
Mark Knold, Chief Economist at the Department of Workforce Services (WFS), stated that the recent three-month employment surge peaked in Utah last month. The two-year growth rate for August of 3.8% is down from July, which was 4.2%.
According to Knold, the moderation parallels a slight national economic slowing. With the Delta variant of COVID-19 increasing, the consumer spending has gone down. Knold said that a reaction such as that is not unusual, given the unknowns of the variant.
WFS shared that Utah’s August private sector employment recorded a two-year expansion of 4.7%, with six of Utah’s 10 major private sector industry groups posting net two-year job gains, which was led by professional and business services at 20,200 jobs. This was followed by trade, transportation and utilities with 16,800 jobs. Construction was third at 11,300 jobs, followed by manufacturing with 8,900 jobs.
On the opposite end, four of the industry groups that showed less employment than two years ago are leisure and hospitality services, natural resources and mining, information and other services. In contrast of Utah’s 2.6% unemployment rates, the United States as a whole sits at 5.2%.