The Utah Department of Workforce Services said that job growth in the state in the year that ended Feb. 29 slipped to 2.3 percent. That's down from a revised 2.6 percent job growth in the year that ended Jan. 31 and from a peak of 5.4 percent in the year that ended June 30, 2006.

Putting those percentages into hard numbers, Utah created about 28,100 new jobs in the Utah economy during the year that ended in February, much fewer than the 54,000 jobs during the year that ended June 2006.

Buoyed by commercial construction and other industries, Utah's job growth is still positive, of course, and well above the national average of 0.6 percent. But in recent months employment growth in the state has lost more and more steam, prompted in great part by job losses related to residential real estate. As home sales have plummeted, people working for home builders, and mortgage and title companies, as well as real estate agents, have lost jobs in recent months.

State officials say Utah's job growth isn't likely to dip below zero, which would mean the state's economy is losing jobs overall. But it can get close.

"The question now is, how far until it hits bottom?" asked economist Mark Knold, of the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Utah's unemployment rate for February moved up slightly to 3 percent, meaning about 41,000 Utahns were out of work last month. The U.S. unemployment rate was 4.8 percent. The state's real estate downturn is especially apparent in data from Construction Monitor for February.

Builders along the Wasatch Front took out permits for the construction of only 261 homes last month, the lowest level since at least 1990 and down nearly 72 percent from 928 units in February 2007, according to the service, which tracks building activity throughout the West.

February's total also is lower than any other February since at least 1990, when the service began compiling permit data.

Nationally, building permits plunged by 7.8 percent in February to an annual rate of 978,000 units, the slowest pace in 16 years.

Knold believes the situation in Utah isn't going to turn itself around this spring, as some have hoped.

He said the market won't start to show increased demand for homes until sellers - home builders and homeowners alike - start lowering prices on properties they hope to sell. That has started to happen, but not to the extent some economists say is warranted.

The good news for the state's job outlook, however, is the relative strength of commercial construction. Construction employment in Utah overall is down 1.3 percent for the year that ended in February. The drop could have been much deeper if the state's commercial construction industry wasn't still healthy. The only other sector to report fewer overall jobs is the information sector, which includes jobs at publishing, motion picture, telecommunication and Internet service companies. But much of that industry's 2.6 percent decline can be attributed to a change in the way those jobs are accounted rather than real job losses.

Alan Rindlisbacher, director of corporate marketing for the commercial construction company The Layton Cos. in Sandy, said commercial construction isn't as robust as it was two years ago. But it's still strong, he said, which makes it possible for some employees who have lost jobs in residential construction to find jobs in commercial construction.

In addition, thousands of people will work in the coming years on various aspects of City Creek Center, a project in downtown Salt Lake City being undertaken by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "With projects like City Creek, everyone in commercial construction is going to continue to be busy for the next several years," Rindlisbacher said.

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* THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this report.