The statewide unemployment reached a post-World War II high of 8.3 percent in January 2010 — 0.6 percentage points higher than previously estimated, according to revised estimates of joblessness by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Until the revision, the previous peak was thought to be 7.6 percent, a level reached in October 2010 and repeated in March and August of 2011.
Estimates are always a work in progress. Each month, Utah’s Department of Workforce Services publishes preliminary estimates of the jobless rate and the number of jobs in the state. The figures are calculated by the BLS, which surveys a limited number of employers. Once a year, the agency fills in the survey with more data from a census of all employers to fine-tune its estimates for all states.
The determination that unemployment was higher than previously thought doesn’t change the story of the worst economic downturn endured by Utahns since the Depression of the 1930s, said Mark Knold, chief economist of the Workforce Services Department. Salt Lake Tribune
