Utah’s nonfarm wage and salaried job count for July 2010, as measured by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) through its monthly employer survey, expanded by 1.5 percent over the past 12 months. Approximately 17,200 jobs have been added to the Utah economy since July 2009, raising total wage and salary employment to 1,185,700.
Utah’s other primary indicator of current labor market conditions also generated by BLS, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, remained unchanged from last month at 7.2 percent. Last July, the state’s rate was 6.8 percent, a 0.4 percentage-point increase over the past 12 months. Approximately 97,900 Utahns are considered unemployed. The United States unemployment rate was also unchanged from last month at 9.5 percent.
Utah’s economy continues to exhibit signs of an economy in the initial stages of economic recovery. The monthly employment survey is suggesting the Utah economy is adding jobs at a slightly faster pace than the economy is losing jobs. Job orders have picked up as has hiring. Still, initial unemployment claims (a proxy for job losses) consistently running at over 2,000 per week is a level that says the economy is still carrying a burden (claims closer to 1,000 per week are more historically normal). Initial claims had risen as high as 5,000 per week at the beginning of 2009, during the worst of the economic collapse, so job losses have moderated considerably since then. The Utah Department of Workforce Services
