Employment numbers for May show that St. George had 8.2 percent more jobs available than in May of 2005, the largest over-the-year percentage increase of 367 U.S. metropolitan areas in a monthly U.S. Department of Labor survey.
"That 8.2 [percent] is pretty amazing, but it really doesn't surprise me considering their recent history," said John Mathews, a state Department of Workforce Services' labor market economist. "They've been in the top 10 or 5 for quite some time. It definitely is growing, population-wise and job-wise. I haven't seen anything that says it's going to slow down much."
In terms of actual jobs, the 8.2 percent increase represented the addition of 3,900 positions.
Statewide, there were 1,191,000 non-farm jobs available to Utahns last month, 4.5 percent more than a year earlier (1,140,000). Metropolitan Salt Lake City had the same job-growth rate over that 12-month span, and completed May with 607,600 non-farm jobs, an over-the-year increase of 26,400.
While the rest of the state cannot keep up with St. George's skyrocketing growth, Mathews observed "it was more than two times the national average. Utah is experiencing another boom and it's likely to continue."
No other metropolitan area came close to matching St. George's percentage of job increase.
The nearest was Prescott, Ariz., where 7.4 percent more jobs were available last month than in May 2005. Not far behind were Midland, Texas (up 6.7 percent), Florence, S.C. (up 6.6 percent) and Morgantown, W.Va. (up 6.4 percent).
By contrast, employment numbers for greater New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., reflected the destruction left behind by Katrina and other Gulf Coast hurricanes last summer.
The New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner area experienced a loss of 185,000 jobs between May of 2005 and last month, a 30.1 percent decrease. Another 22,000 jobs evaporated in the Biloxi-Gulfport area, an 18.9 percent decline.
Besides those hurricane-ravaged communities, the metropolitan areas with the worst job figures were greater Detroit (down 19,500 from the previous May) and Rochester, N.Y. (down 7,400).
Utah's slowest job growth occurred in the Logan area. Only 500 new jobs were added since May of 2005, a 1.0 percent increase. The Ogden-Clearfield metropolitan area had a 2.2 percent jump during that yearlong period, adding 4,100 jobs.
Mathews said he was not at all concerned about what the figures mean for Logan.
"That little economy up there has been fairly steady and consistent, even through the up-and-down swings earlier this decade," he said. "I'm not concerned about that pace as long as the economy continues to grow."
Cindy Roberts, the Cache Chamber of Commerce's chief operating officer, suggested her area's lower growth numbers are distorted a bit because agriculture is so important to the area, accounting for 23 percent of its economy.
And, "we're doing some incredible things up here with technology and light manufacturing," she added, citing the Innovations Campus research park being spun off of research done at Utah State University. "It's exciting how we're developing technology coming out of the university."
Weber County's numbers still show the impact of some lost manufacturing jobs, Mathews said, "but they're seeing light at the end of the tunnel. New companies are moving in. I suspect that is going to continue."
mikeg@sltrib.com
