Utah’s economy is slowing down, according to April employment report

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Workforce Services released the jobs report for April on Friday morning.

Utah added more than 43,000 jobs over the past 12 months. But experts say the state’s economy has been slowing down every month this year.

Department of Workforce Services Deputy Director Nate McDonald joined KSL’s Utah Morning News to discuss the latest numbers. 

McDonald said the state’s unemployment rate dropped slightly from 2.4% to 2.3%. 

“Nine of the 10 different private sectors we measure are seeing that strong job growth still happen,” said  McDonald.

Leisure and hospitality services showed the biggest growth last month. McDonald noted that education and health services have had a strong post-pandemic comeback.

McDonald wanted to point out that 22% of the added jobs came from rural areas in Utah. 

“When you look at our overall population, only 20% of our population is in rural Utah. But you also imagine none of them would commute into jobs that are along the Wasatch Front,” noted McDonald. “So to see more than 20% of our of these new jobs be in rural Utah, it really points to some good activity that is happening in our rural communities.”

Utah’s current job count stands at 1,720,300. The national unemployment rate moved down one notch to 3.4% in April. 

Related: Utah’s jobs report for March holds steady