Employers added 55,600 jobs from June 2005 to June 2006, keeping Utah among the five fastest-growing states in the nation. June's unemployment rate registered at 3.1 percent, down from 3.5 percent in May and 4.3 percent a year ago, Workforce Services said.
Utah's unemployment rate is so low that job growth may begin to slow as employers struggle to find enough workers to fill job openings, said Mark Knold, senior economist at Workforce Services.
"I have a feeling we're seeing the peak of this" job-growth cycle, Knold said. "As we finish out this year, the odds are higher that the growth rate will slow rather than accelerate. That's not a bad thing. . . . Even if it fell to 3.5 percent, that's still a strong rate of employment growth."
Because the 18-24 population in Utah that comprises most new workers entering the job market has flatlined, Utah will have to rely on workers moving in from other states and countries to maintain its rapid job growth, said Pam Perlich, an economist at the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research. The good news is that for the first time in five years, Utah is experiencing net in-migration from other states, Perlich said.
Among the key sectors, natural resources - which includes oil and gas companies - construction and professional services added jobs at the most rapid rates. Fueled by rising oil and natural gas prices, the natural resources job market grew by 17.1 percent in the year that ended June 30. The Uintah Basin added jobs faster than all other Utah regions, with employment growing by 14.2 percent.
Perhaps the hardest-pressed recruiters are those in the construction industry, which added the most jobs, 12,900 from June 2005 to June 2006.
"I've never seen it like this, and I've been here since 1976," said Gary Thorn, owner of Sandy-based home builder Gary R. Thorn Construction Inc.
Thorn places want ads in the newspaper, posts openings with Workforce Services, recruits at job fairs and has even resorted to posting signs in pawn shops. If he could, he'd hire 100 people immediately, but he is struggling to fill even five openings.
"We've had other general [contractors] and other framers come to the job site and offer [employees] more money to go work for them," Thorn said. "It's just a tough market out there. You don't have [new workers] being trained, you don't have enough skilled people and you don't have young people wanting to go into construction."
Conversely, unemployed adults in other booming sectors, such as professional and business services, say Utah's rosy economy doesn't mean finding a job is easy. Some complain they are being passed over for less-qualified workers who require lower salaries. Others say most openings go to job seekers who are already employed because hiring managers look less favorably at applicants who are unemployed.
Jason Alba was laid off from an information technology job in January after his company downsized. But the Herriman resident, with eight years of technology experience and an MBA, assumed he'd pick up another job in a few weeks because everyone was saying the job market was red hot.
"It gives [workers] a false sense of security. . . . People think they could go find a job immediately, and that's not true. The more money you make right now, the harder it is to replace that," Alba said.
Six months later, Alba doesn't have a job, but he does have a game plan. After finding that it wasn't enough to reply to want ads, post his resume on Monster.com and call a couple recruiters - he only had two interviews after 100 applications - Alba came to rely on networking to get job leads. He used his spare time and computer skills to launch an online tool for job seekers, http://www.jibberjobber.com.
"I'm going to interviews and I'm doing my best," Alba said. "I just hate to hear, 'We have another really excellent candidate,' which means, 'You're No. 2.' "
rwinters@sltrib.com
