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The state's latest job report offers the first solid hint of a turnaround in Utah's economy, which has been battered by job losses for more than a year.
Utah's economy has lost 51,500 jobs -- 4.1 percent of the state's employment base of about 1. 2 million -- in the year that ended in September, the state said Thursday. While job losses of this magnitude are a sign of an ailing economy, the numbers represent a marked improvement from August, when the year-over-year decline in jobs in Utah was significantly higher, at 4.5 percent.
"One month doesn't make a trend, but this is one of the most positive [economic] signs we've seen in a year," said Utah Department of Workforce Services economist Lecia Langston. "The job losses appear to be bottoming out." That said, the recovery will take some time, she pointed out.
The state's unemployment rate, for example, rose from 6 percent in August to 6.2 percent in September. An estimated 84,300 Utahns were unemployed last month, up from 46,700 in September 2008. But the state still is looking better than much of the rest of the country: The national unemployment rate is 9.8 percent.
"This recession we're in was caused by a housing bubble, and these things take a long time to work themselves out," Langston said. "We'll continue to see job losses for some time, but they should get smaller and smaller."
And then at some point next year, Utah is poised to have job growth once again, meaning that
The downturn has been particularly tough on Utah construction workers such as Lindsay Davis, who has been out of work for months and is having a hard time finding a job.
"I've gone to every construction company in the city, and they all say the same thing: They have a hiring freeze on," Davis lamented as he looked for job openings at a state employment center in downtown Salt Lake City on Thursday.
"I went down to Provo and American Fork the last couple of days, and while there are some construction projects going on down there, it was the same story."
Nationally, the employment situation is much the same as in Utah. Year-over-year job losses nationally total 4.2 percent, just one-tenth of a percentage point higher than in Utah. And in two national reports out Thursday, "all point to an economy that is starting to grow again," said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. Yet, as in Utah, any national recovery is widely expected to be weak, particularly when it comes to employment and hiring.
Though the jobs numbers suggest the state's economy is on the cusp of recovery, many workers stung by job loss have yet to see any improvement. At the state's downtown Salt Lake City jobs office on Thursday, Robin Greaves reflected on the lack of available positions.
"It's really tough to find a job out there," she said. "Last year I went and applied at every convenience store in the city trying to get a job, and there was nothing; no one was hiring. I'm sure it is the same thing now, only worse."
Greaves said she's given up on looking for a job for now and is hoping to collect disability because of a recent back injury.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
