Utah’s employment rate sees slight increase
Dec 16, 2022, 8:03 AM | Updated: 8:50 am
Help wanted sign is displayed in Deerfield, Ill., Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. The number of available jobs in the U.S. plummeted in August compared with July, a sign that businesses may pull back further on hiring and potentially cool chronically high inflation. There were 10.1 million advertised jobs on the last day of August, the government said Tuesday, Sept. 4, down a huge 10% from 11.2 million openings in July. In March, job openings had hit a record of nearly 11.9 million. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Workforce Services released the November jobs report on Friday morning.
In the past 12 months, employment increased an estimated 2.6%. Additionally, the state added a cumulative 43,100 jobs since last November making Utah’s current job count 1,688,600.
The seasonally-adjusted unemployment went up slightly from 2.1% to 2.2% with 38,200 Utahns reported as unemployed. The national unemployment rate is unchanged at 3.7%.
The Department of Workforce Services Deputy Director, Nate McDonald joined KSL’S Utah Morning News to discuss the report.
McDonald talked about the strength of Utah’s economy.
“Our job growth has been — we’ve been above 3% job growth for over a year now. Being above 3% job growth and having such a low unemployment, being in the low twos, is, it really has been just unheard of.”
McDonald said that shows how strong the state’s economy has been. Then added, “But you can’t sustain that.”
Noting our economy is overheating a little bit he continued, “And so even though our job growth came in at 2.6%, we’re still seeing job growth is slowing down. So we’re starting to see some of what’s happening at the national level some these impacts and decisions that are being made at that national level, starting to just slow things down here in Utah a little.”
Listen to the full segment on the jobs report:
