Press Release
March 22, 2024
UTAH’S EMPLOYMENT SUMMARY: February 2024
SALT LAKE CITY (March 22, 2024) — Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment for February 2024 increased an estimated 1.9% across the past 12 months, with the state’s economy adding a cumulative 32,600 jobs since February 2023. Utah’s current job count stands at 1,735,300.
February’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is estimated at 2.8%. Approximately 51,100 Utahns are unemployed. Utah’s January unemployment rate is unrevised at 2.8%. The February national unemployment rate increased two-tenths of a percentage point to 3.9%.
“The Utah economy continues to grow at a slower pace than what we saw last year,” said Mark Knold, Chief Economist at the Department of Workforce Services. “The supply of labor provided by domestic labor migrating to Utah over the past several years allowed the state’s economy to grow faster than what the state’s low unemployment rate should otherwise have allowed. However, this domestic in-migration has now slowed and the state’s low unemployment rate is constraining faster growth. Therefore, Utah’s job growth pace has moderated toward the national average.”
Utah’s February private sector employment recorded a year-over-year expansion of 1.4%, or a 19,800-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 (9,600 jobs), construction (6,900 jobs), professional and business services (2,900 jobs), and leisure and hospitality (1,600 jobs). Three sectors with job losses are financial activities (-2,100), information (-800 jobs), and trade, transportation, utilities (-300 jobs).
- Additional analysis and tables at https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/
update/index.html - County unemployment rates for February will post on or shortly after March 25, 2024, at https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/
update/une/season.pdf - March’s employment information will be released at 7 a.m. on Friday, April 19, 2024.
- Statistics generated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D.C., modeled from monthly employer (employment) and household (unemployment) surveys.
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