The Job Market might be easing
Jobless rate increases to 6.8%, but stabilizing
Even though Utah's unemployment rate grew in January, to 6.8%. Which means 91,500 Utahns were out of work. Signs are starting point to the recession either stabilzing or even in some sectors growing.
Despite those numbers, Mark Knold, chief economist for the Utah Department of Workforce Services took a deeper look at monthly employment data released Tuesday prompted this upbeat evaluation.
He noted that construction, the state's hardest-hit sector, had numbers reflecting a slightly better situation. Between the Januarys of 2009 and '10, Utah had 11,100 fewer construction jobs. Not good, but better than the differential of 12,200 between the Decembers of '08 and '09.
"What [Knold] is saying tracks with what our national economists have been saying," said Richard Thorne, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Utah. "We're in a depression more than a recession. I just hope [Knold's] recovery happens sooner rather than later."