Utah employment sees an increase in January

Mar 6, 2024, 7:18 AM | Updated: 8:13 am

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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s non-farm payroll employment for January 2024 increased an estimated 1.9% across the past 12 months, with the state’s economy adding a cumulative 32,100 jobs to Utah employment since January 2023.

According to the Department of Workforce Services, Utah’s current job count stands at 1,720,900.

January’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is estimated at 2.8%. Approximately 50,300 Utahns are unemployed. Utah’s December unemployment rate is unrevised at 2.8%. The January national unemployment rate is unchanged at 3.7%.

Continued growth in Utah employment

“Utah begins the year with continued job growth, but at a more reserved pace than seen over the past several years,” said Mark Knold, Chief Economist at the Department of Workforce Services. “The economy is still creating new jobs, illustrated by the over 32,000 recorded across the past year. However, the amount of online job postings has slowed from recent elevated levels. The want for new workers feels like it is settling into a flow more akin to a historical norm. The high growth of the last few years was a pandemic-driven, monetary-stimulus anomaly. The sense now is the stimulus has run its course, and a return to ordinary job growth has materialized.”

Utah’s January private sector employment recorded a year-over-year expansion of 1.3% or a 19,200 job increase. Seven of the ten major private-sector industry groups posted net year-over-year job gains. The overall gains are led by education and health services (9,000 jobs), construction (5,300 jobs), professional and business services (2,000 jobs), and manufacturing (1,700 jobs). Three sectors with job losses are financial activities (-900), information (-200 jobs), and trade, transportation, and utilities (-100 jobs).

It should be noted that seasonally adjusted unemployment rates will be updated on March 11, per the Department of Workforce Services. 

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Utah employment sees an increase in January