Utah's job growth was 4.5 percent for the year that ended in April, about the same as 4.6 percent in March, the Utah Department of Workforce Services reported Tuesday. Job growth nationally averaged 1.4 percent last month.

April data are not yet available for all states, but in March the Intermountain region was tops in creating jobs, with Utah leading the way. Utah's 4.6 percent figure topped Wyoming (4.4 percent), Arizona (3.7 percent), Idaho (3.2 percent) and Nevada (3.1 percent).

"It's really surprising that Utah's job growth keeps flying along at such a high rate," said Mark Knold, chief economist for the Utah Department of Workforce Services. "You know it's eventually going to back off, but there's no real sign of that yet."

The high level of job creation is creating headaches for many employers, some of which are struggling to recruit and retain all the workers they need. For workers, the tight labor market means higher wages and more job security.

Mike Tasker of Mona, a construction foreman and equipment operator, remembers how hard it was to find a job in the early 1970s when he started out in the industry, which is the top job-creating sector in Utah.

There were plenty of people looking for jobs but relatively few of them to go around. It wasn't unusual for companies to lay off workers during winter months because they could easily rehire them in the spring.

Not anymore. Construction industry employment grew by a huge 15.7 percent in the year that ended in April, Workforce Services said Tuesday.

For Tasker, driving an excavator at a construction site in Provo, that means no job worries. "I could leave here and find another job in 10 minutes."

His employer, Bob Tempest, doesn't doubt that claim. The owner of Murray-based construction company Tempest Enterprises is struggling to find general laborers and equipment operators.

"An experienced equip- ment operator can command such a premium right now," he lamented.

Tempest said he also is trying to do everything he can to keep his 100 existing employees happy.

Over the past year, the employer also has done everything he could to find workers, such as running help-wanted ads and recruiting soon-to-be-released prison inmates.

"I could double the size of my company if I could find the workers," he said of his 100-employee enterprise. "You just can't find people right now."

In all, about 54,000 jobs have been created in the Utah economy in the past year, raising total wage and salary employment in Utah to 1.25 million. That's an average of 4,500 new jobs in the state per month.

All that job growth pushed down the unemployment rate to 2.5 percent in April, significantly lower than the U.S. unemployment rate of 4.5 percent.

Only about 33,700 Utahns were unemployed in April, compared with 40,000 in April 2006.

Knold said he had thought such low unemployment would eventually slow job growth because employers couldn't fill positions.

But they are still able to find workers, with Knold guessing that many new hires are from out of state, especially from areas plagued by high unemployment.

For much of Utah's current economic expansion, which began in late 2003, the state has been among the best-performing states in terms of job growth, in any given month trailing only Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona or Idaho. But no more.

"The states that are ahead of us have slipped back a bit," Knold said. "And we have stayed steady."

All industries are adding jobs except the information sector, down by one-half of 1 percent over the past year. The loss stems from America Online's decision to close its Ogden office.

AOL is classified in the information industry, which includes publishing companies, telecommunications businesses and media. But Teleperformance, classified in the professional and business services industry, hired most of the former AOL workers, contributing to a job gain in that sector.

lesley@sltrib.com