Salt Lake has fewer jobless than other big cities

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Salt Lake City metropolitan area still has the country's lowest unemployment rate among the 51 cities nationally with populations of 1 million or more.

It's unemployment rate in January was 3.0 percent — far below the national jobless rate of 5.1 percent, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Close behind Salt Lake City was Denver with an unemployment rate of 3.1 percent. Cleveland had the highest jobless rate among large metro areas at 6.6 percent.

The agency estimated Salt Lake City, which has had the lowest unemployment rate among large metro areas for months, had 644,244 people in its civilian workforce in January — with 19,299 unemployed.

While Salt Lake City ranked highest among large cities, other metro areas in Utah had rates that were even lower.

Both the Provo-Orem and Logan metro areas had unemployment rates at 2.9 percent. The rate in Ogden-Clearfield was 3.3 percent, while St. George's was 3.5 percent.

Statewide, Utah's overall unemployment rate in January was 3.3 percent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said nonfarm employment increased over the past 12 months in 308 metropolitan areas, decreased in 75 and was unchanged in five.