Utah created 53,500 jobs in the year that ended in September, for an employment growth rate of 4.4 percent, the Utah Department of Workforce Services reported Tuesday. Although that rate remains higher than all other states, it is down from 4.5 percent in August, 4.7 percent in July and a peak of 5.4 percent in June 2006.

Utah's rate will continue to slow down, said Workforce Services economist Mark Knold, who predicts employment growth will drop into the 3 percent range by next year.

But Knold believes Utah employers and workers will hardly notice a difference in the job market. Because of Utah's steady population growth, continued corporate expansion and immigration from other states, jobs should still be plentiful and many employers will continue to face some amount of difficultly recruiting and retaining workers.

"If you're driving at 80 miles per hour and you slow down to 70 miles per hour, you're still going fast," he said. "Employers are not going to get a lot of relief from the labor shortage any time soon, and workers will still have many options available to them."

Knold also reminds anyone looking at Tuesday's jobs report to keep things in perspective. Utah's job growth is still much better than the national average of 1.2 percent. And the state's unemployment rate remains a super-low 2.7 percent, compared with the U.S. rate of 4.7 percent.

Only 37,000 Utahns were unemployed in September, according to Workforce Services, up only slightly from the 35,400 who were unemployed in September 2006.

Like Knold, Ernie P. Goss, a Creighton University professor of economics who monitors the economies of Utah and other Western states, believes that any slowdown in Utah's job growth is hardly a concern. Ditto for the slowdown in the housing market along the Wasatch Front.

"The housing market slowdown is much worse in Arizona, Nevada and Florida," Goss said. "And how about Michigan? They would love to have any of Utah's problems. Utah's fundamentals are so strong."

Both Knold and Goss believe that Utah's housing market will see high levels of inventories and fewer sales only through next year. The market could turn around rather quickly, rather than struggling for years, Knold said, because all of the area's other vital signs are so strong.

And any layoffs in the residential construction industry are, for the time being anyway, being offset by high levels of commercial construction, Knold said.

The largest commercial project under way is the $1 billion City Creek Center, a huge development that includes a mix of retail, housing and office space in downtown Salt Lake City set for completion in 2011. Down several blocks on Main Street from that development, another company is building a skyline-altering office tower.

Over at staffing company SOS Staffing in Salt Lake City, Christine Kronkow, a regional manager, said she has been hoping that the gradual slowdown in job growth would make her company's job of helping companies find workers a bit easier. No such luck.

"We've seen no letup" in demand for workers, she said.

Kronkow said there are many employers, including those who have expanded in Utah or moved here recently, who are looking for workers.

And then there's the thousands of temporary workers that must be hired to accommodate retailers and other companies during the upcoming holiday season.

In times of high unemployment, many temporary positions are taken by people who can't immediately find permanent work.

"The problem is that everybody's already employed right now," she said. "So try and figure that one out."

lesley@sltrib.com