In somewhat good news, the unemployment rate improved moderately last month in Utah. It ticked downward by 0.2% - from 7.6% to 7.4%. Compared to the national rate of 9.1%, that`s pretty good. Compared to the 2.5% rate Utah had 4 years ago, that`s still a three-fold increase. Considering all the economic development going on throughout the state, I imagine the rate will continue to fall. 1/5 of a percent is a good drop for just one month! Even so, it will probably take years to get back to 2.5%.
Utah still enjoys one of the lowest unemployment rates in the neighborhood. Montana has a 7.7% unemployment rate while Colorado`s is at 8.3%, Washington, Idaho and Arizona are at the national average of 9%. Oregon is stuck a half percentage above the national average at 9.6%. California just fell slightly below the 12% mark for the first time since 2009 while Nevada still has the highest rate in the nation at over 13%. On the other side, New Mexico clocks in at a 6.6% reading while Wyoming is at 5.8%.
Quote:
The Salt Lake Tribune
The employment picture in Utah improved moderately in September as employers hired workers, but plenty of gloom prevailed among the jobless, according to Department of Workforce Services figures released Thursday.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the state dipped to 7.4 percent of Utah’s workforce from 7.6 percent in August, but was stuck at the same level as September 2010, the department said. Nationally, the jobless rate in September was 9.1 percent, unchanged from the previous month....
"I would say the underlying theme [among the unemployed] is discouragement. When you have job growth but lower labor force participation, that still portrays a negative perception toward the economy," Knold said.
The perception has merit, said Allison Rowland, director of the State Fiscal Analysis Initiative at Voices for Utah Children, a nonpartisan advocate group. The state needs 197,000 new jobs to return to pre-recession levels of employment, she said.
"We are going to need a lot more months of a lot more [job] growth to even put a dent in the unemployment rate," Rowland said.
"What our analysis makes clear is that we are not anywhere near either recuperating the jobs that were lost in Utah since 2007 or providing new jobs for all the potential workers who have come of age since that time," she said.
More jobs are available in Utah. In the year ending Sept. 30, employers created 33,300 positions — an increase of 2.8 percent. By comparison, the number of jobs in the country increased just 1.1 percent.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/52751044-79/percent-utah-jobs-rate.html.csp
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I would wait for something like that here in SLC. 
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