SALT LAKE CITY — Utah‘s unemployment rate remains among the lowest in the country, while job creation is staying strong, according to the latest numbers released Friday.
Inflation, increases in the price of gas, and supply chain issues have grabbed the financial headlines lately, but Utah’s economy continues to remain stable and strong.
The latest data from April to May showed that unemployment went up slightly, from 1.9% to 2%, while job growth also slowed down a little, from 3.8% to 3.5% compared to this time last year.
But officials said that’s predictable because there was explosive growth in the number of new jobs last year which is basically impossible to sustain.
“We saw a huge emergence coming out of the pandemic and now we just can’t, we’re just not going to see that that much growth moving forward," said Nate McDonald, Deputy Director of Utah Workforce Services.
McDonald says there are a couple sectors that are not doing as well as others in Utah.
“Those are kind of like your tech industry jobs, architects, kind of like high-skilled type, professional jobs. And also, the other one was financial services, they saw a decrease as well. So those are two areas where they are typically higher-paying jobs, so it’s a little concerning to see slowing in those areas, but all other sectors we still have job growth, job gains.”
The national unemployment rate is currently at 3.6%, meaning Utah is still doing quite well, while national job growth is 4.5%.
There are currently a little more than 34,000 Utahns who are unemployed.
