Labor gains lead to labor pains as Utah unemployment falls to its lowest rate ever

A rebounding economy increasingly short on available workers has pushed Utah’s unemployment rate to a new low: 2.2% for October.

That’s down from 2.4% in September after months of steady declines and continues at less than half the latest jobless rate for the U.S. as a whole, now at 4.6%.

Fully 1.74 million Utahns were working last month, but “as people continue to fill jobs, the pool of idle, available labor keeps shrinking,” Mark Knold, chief economist for the state Department of Workforce Services, said Friday in a statement.

October, Knold said, saw the lowest unemployment rate Utah has ever recorded as its labor pool “continues to get tighter and tighter.”

Record low jobless levels were the result, he said, of an economy moving “at the forceful pace it did before the pandemic” with some workers less willing to engage in the workforce then before the onset of COVID-19.

“This makes for fewer available workers,” Knold said.

Continued trepidation over face-to-face interactions in public due to persistent outbreaks from the delta variant is thought be keeping some workers in Utah sidelined, state officials said in September.

Utah saw 1,789 new coronavirus cases Thursday and 13 deaths as the virus continues to infect largely unvaccinated residents.

Roughly 37,4000 Utahns remain unemployed as of last month. And with its economy recovering from a pandemic-driven downturn at a relatively faster rate than other states, the Beehive State has added 58,5000 jobs since October of 2019 for a 4.9% gain.

The biggest two-year job gains have been in trade, transportation and utilities (20,900 jobs); professional and business services (15,000); construction (10,800); and manufacturing (7,900).

But, as has been the pattern for months, sectors such as mining and leisure and hospitality are still losing jobs compared to two years, though both are now down only by an estimated 1,200 jobs compared to 2019.