SALT LAKE CITY — From January 2021 to January 2022, 5 percent more Americans were employed. That's 7 million more Americans working. Over the same time, 1 percent more Americans were participating in the workforce. 163.7 million Americans are working or want to work.
The new numbers once again show that workers have more control of their work. Fifty-four percent more Americans were forced from work 12 months ago. Forty-six percent more workers left jobs by choice this past January.
The Utah Department of Workforce services provided the employment picture county-by-county in late January. On the map below, the dark blue counties saw a 5 percent or greater increase in the number of people employed. The four red counties either lost jobs or saw no increase. Notably, Utah's third most populous county, Davis, lost a few hundred jobs from December 2020 to December 2021.
It's a reminder of how central Salt Lake County is to the state's economy. This chart shows that Davis, Utah and Weber counties have a smaller share of the state's jobs (he green numbers) than their share of the state's people (in blue). Salt Lake County is dramatically different: 36 percent of the state's people and 46 percent of the state's jobs.
Using the same comparison across all counties, only Summit, Salt Lake and Grand counties have significantly larger shares of jobs than people. Cache County is at almost zero percent.
