This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated.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.

Utah's economy continued to hum along at nearly twice the nation's pace in job creation in February, adding 45,700 positions over a 12-month period.

That 3.3 percent growth rate far outdistanced the U.S. employment expansion of 1.7 percent and left the state with 1,445,000 nonfarm jobs.

Unemployment remained steady from January at 3.1 percent.

"Utah's monthly labor market indicators continue to show the economy operating at or near full employment," said Carrie Mayne, chief economist at the state Department of Workforce Services.

Companies in the trade, transportation and utilities industries added the most jobs from February 2016 to last month — 11,500, a 4.3 percent increase.

The professional and business services sector was next in line, led by the waste management and remediation industry, with 8,200 new positions, up 4.2 percent over a year earlier.

Employment in the education and health services sector also continued to expand. That sector added 7,200 jobs in the last year, with ambulatory health care services accounting for 2,800 of those positions.

On the down side, the number of jobs in energy and natural resources production fell 9.1 percent year over the past year, or about 900 positions.

For the first time in several months, however, energy and natural resources wasn't the only sector with negative numbers. The information sector lost 600 people between the Februarys, with two-thirds of those involving work in motion picture and sound recording, according to Workforce Services.