As 2021 nears its end, the Department of Workforce Services (DWS) released Utah’s employment summary for November, comparing statistics from 2019 to now.
Beginning the report, it was stated that the non-farm payroll employment for the month in Utah increased an estimated 3.6% across the past two years. The state’s economy added a cumulative 57,900 jobs in that time.
The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate sits at 2.1%, with around 34,500 unemployed Utahns. The October unemployment rate for Utah was unchanged at 2.2% and the November national unemployment rate continued to decline, coming in at 4.2%.
Mark Knold, Chief Economist at the DWS, stated that though the supply of available labor continues to shrink, the Utah economy is growing. He also shared that Utah leads the nation in job growth.
In regard to private sector employment, Utah recorded a two-year expansion of 4.7%. Eight of the 10 major private-sector industry groups in Utah posted net two-year job gains that were led by trade, transportation and utilities with 21,100 jobs. This was followed by professional and business services, construction and manufacturing.
The two industry groups that showed less employment in comparison to 2019 were leisure and hospitality services as well as natural resources and mining.
For Carbon County, it was stated that the mining sector was responsible for many of the lost jobs in the past two years. Mining was followed by government, other services and information. Carbon County peaked at 9.2% in April of 2020, though the unemployment rate has fallen considerably throughout the past year.
On the other hand, Emery County added 60 jobs, which was a growth of 1.7%. Out of the 10 industry sectors for the county, six of them contributed to the growth and the most significant was recorded as construction with over 100 jobs added since 2019.
Emery County has also returned to positive job growth in the second quarter, with 158 jobs added between June 2020 and June 2021.