Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment increased an estimated 3.7% across the past 24 months, with the state’s economy adding a cumulative 58,500 jobs since October 2019. Utah’s current employment level stands at 1,640,700. The Department of Workforce Services announced that October’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate is 2.2 percent, with 37,400 Utahns unemployed. The October national unemployment rate ticked down to 4.6 percent. “The labor market in Utah continues to get tighter and tighter,” said DWS Chief Economist Mark Knold. “As people continue to fill jobs, the pool of idle, available labor keeps shrinking. At 2.2 percent, October’s unemployment rate is Utah’s lowest unemployment rate ever recorded. It is the outcome of an economy largely moving along at the forceful pace it did before the pandemic with a labor force that does not desire to be engaged at the same levels as it did before the pandemic. This makes for fewer available workers.” Unemployment rates by County will be released this week.
