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A host of expansions by businesses of all sizes is helping Utah's battered economy turn into one of the top job-creation engines in the country, a new report shows.
The state's unemployment rate in October declined to 7 percent, down from 7.4 percent in September and 7.6 percent in October 2010. The rate is a full percentage point below the peak of 8 percent from early last year.
Another hopeful sign is that Utah had 31,600 more jobs in October, a 2.6 percent gain, than it did a year ago, bringing total employment in the state to more than 1.2 million. And nearly all of the state's employment sectors are adding new positions, said Mark Knold, chief economist at the Utah Department of Workforce Services.
"It was a long and deep recession," Knold said Thursday. But given the state's job growth — behind only that of North Dakota and Wyoming —employment levels should be back up to pre-recessionary levels in another year and a half. "We had a hard stumble, but we're having a pretty good bounce back," Knold said.
Along the Wasatch Front, expanding companies such as The Ready Store in Draper are filling space vacated by companies that had scaled back or gone out of business during one of the toughest downturns the state has seen.
It provides emergency-preparedness products and services, employs 30 people and plans to double employment over the next six months. The company recently moved into larger offices to accommodate that expansion.
"We've looked at both leasing and buying buildings and there's fantastic space available for very good prices," said Jonathan Dick, director of sales and marketing for The Ready Store.
Job growth is helping the state get back to pre-recession payroll levels. Utah's economy lost about 80,000 jobs since the downturn began in 2007, and has gained about half of them back.
As the recovery has slowly taken hold, Utah has seen a number of corporate expansions over the past year, many of them in the higher-paying technology sector.
IM Flash Technologies, for example, is investing $1.5 billion in its flash memory chip plant in Lehi and plans to add 200 jobs. IM Flash, jointly owned by computer chipmakers Intel Corp. and Micron Technologies Inc., already employs about 1,500 in the state.
Companies with a smaller presence are adding jobs, too. New York-based Systems Made Simple is expanding its Murray operation, which is creating a health records registry for military personnel.
The company has grown from one employee in Utah to 75 in just one year, said spokesman Steven Thiese.
Even Utah's manufacturing sector, which has been hit hard by the downturn, is showing signs of life. On Thursday, Hexcel Corp. unveiled two production lines that are part of a multimillion-dollar expansion that means the addition of 50 jobs in coming months. By 2015, the company said it could add several hundred more jobs in the state.
Hexcel Corp. manufactures materials used in the commercial aerospace and defense industries.
If Utah's job growth continues at its current pace, the number of people filing for unemployment claims should start to ebb in the coming months. In Utah, 2,536 people applied for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, about the same as the week before, according to the Workforce Services.
Nationally, the number applying fell last week to the lowest level since early April, a sign that layoffs are easing and hiring may pick up.
Weekly applications dropped by 5,000, to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the fourth decline in five weeks.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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