Varied Effects of the Recession by Industry

From the third quarter of 2007 to the third quarter of 2009, nonfarm payroll jobs have declined by 5.5 percent or a net reduction 69,500 positions. Although job losses were widespread across most of Utah’s industries, by far the greatest employment reductions have occurred in construction, where one-third of the jobs have been lost. Construction employers cut 35,400 jobs from their payrolls over the past two years; a little more than half of all jobs eliminated statewide during this recession. Manufacturing is the second most-impacted industry with a reduction of 16,335 or 12.7 percent of jobs. The few industry sectors that continue to add jobs during this recession were healthcare, private education, and government. The majority of job gains in government are related to education—both local public kindergarten through twelfth grade, and state-financed higher education. TrendLines