Utah's economy is about as good as it gets.

With 47,900 new jobs created in the 12 months ended April 30, and April's unemployment rate at 3.5 percent, Utah faces few economic risks, according to a report released Tuesday by the state Department of Workforce Services.

"The western United States is experiencing the most robust economic activity in the entire nation," said Mark Knold, senior economist for the department. "And Utah finds itself right in the middle of this energy."

In fact, at 4.2 percent, Utah ranks No. 4 in the nation in the highest percentage increase in new job growth. Only Nevada, Arizona and Idaho posted higher percentages, Knold said.

Driving Utah's growth in absolute numbers was the professional and business services sector, which includes architects, engineers and computer systems professionals. This sector made up about 13 percent of the state's employment base, or around 154,400 jobs, and created 10,800 new jobs over the past year for a growth rate of 7.6 percent — the most new jobs of any sector.

Close behind was the construction sector, which showed a growth rate of 10.7 percent, or 8,300 new jobs. In recent years, the construction industry has been bolstered by a surge in residential construction.

Homebuilding in Utah ended 2005 at a frantic level, with more residential permits issued than in any other year in the state's history, according to the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Residential valuation in 2005 reached $4.7 billion, a 31 percent increase over $3.6 billion in 2004.

Coming in third place was the trade, transportation and utilities sector, which added 8,000 new jobs to the Utah economy, a growth rate of 3.6 percent.

Nationally, employment growth since April 2005 was 1.4 percent, or 1.8 million new jobs. Utah's new jobs over the past year represent 2.6 percent of all the new jobs added in the United States, the report said.

The U.S. unemployment rate registered 4.7 percent in April.

Yet Utah's red hot job market does carry a downside — too few skilled workers, according to Tom Bingham, president of the Utah Manufacturers Association.

"Finding those with the right qualifications is a real challenge," Bingham said. "In our society, particularly in Utah, we tend to try to push all of these students out of high school into the universities to get baccalaureate degrees, and that is not where the jobs are."

According to Bingham, about 70 percent of all the jobs in Utah do not require a bachelor's degree. Many of those are good-paying jobs found in the manufacturing sector.

For example, machinists, who require one year of training, are in high demand and command an average wage in Utah of $36,130.

"Right now in the last four or five months, there has been a shortage of trained machinists," Bingham said. "These folks who are using machinists are just stealing from each other. Those people jump ship and go where they can get more money. There just isn't enough supply there."

Knold agrees. "The unemployment rate is so low it is getting harder to find labor," he said. "That has a dampening effect on how much the economy can actually grow."

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