As expected, unemployment numbers by county have gone up in northeastern Utah. Duchesne County went from 4.4 percent in January to 5 percent in February and 5.5 percent in March. Uintah County started at 5.1 percent in January and rose to 5.7 percent in February before reaching 6.3 percent in March. Daggett County remained at 3.6 percent unemployment for January, February, and March. Utah’s unemployment rate for March was 3.6 percent and national unemployment for March was 4.4 percent. Unfortunately, these numbers do not reflect the likely biggest effects of the coronavirus on employment in Utah as the March 2020 measures were taken prior to the social distancing mandate and largely reflects the beginning of March employment. The official April unemployment data will not be released until May 22nd when the statistics are released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
