The Utah Department of Workforce Services released its employment numbers for August on Friday. They’re up by an estimated 4.0%, adding nearly 53,000 nonfarm payroll jobs compared to August a year ago. That’s nearly twice the national average growth rate for the same period. Carrie Mayne is the Chief Economist with the Utah Department of Workforce Services. She says there’s strong growth across diverse industries but the highest job growth was in leisure and hospitality at 7.9% with education in second place.
“Education and health services has grown five and a half percent," says Mayne, "That’s an addition of 9,400 jobs, so almost 10,000 more jobs in this same time one year ago.”
Mayne says she’s not surprised to see small movements in the numbers from one month to the next as Utah’s economy is still operating at full employment.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports Utah’s August seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate rose one-tenth of a percent from last month to 3.7%. An estimated 53,600 Utahns were unemployed in the month and actively seeking work. The August national unemployment rate dropped 0.2 of a percent from July to 5.1 %.
