Utah's jobless rate remains well below the national numbers, but it does appear that the state's economy is starting to ease, according to the latest estimates from the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Utah's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was estimated at 2.7 percent for January, according to department figures released Tuesday. The yearly revision of unemployment data is still under way, so the department said it won't release the state's official unemployment rate until Feb. 27. The 2.7 percent is the department's estimation of what that rate will be when it is officially published.

Total employment in the state grew by 4.5 percent over the past 12 months, continuing the slight downward trend over the past six months. (The state's employment growth rate for December was revised down from 4.7 percent to 4.4 percent.) About 52,400 jobs were created during the past year.

"Even though the economy probably doesn't feel any different to the average worker or business, the numbers are showing that the luster is fading somewhat on the Utah economic expansion," Mark Knold, the department's senior economist, wrote in the report.

"The employment growth rate is slowing. Fortunately, it is not slowing because of any negativity coming from the marketplace in terms of less demand for goods and services. Instead, it is an expanding economy that is finding the pool of available new workers growing smaller and smaller."

The construction industry added the most jobs over the past 12 months, bringing on 13,500 new workers. The trade, transportation and utilities sector added 8,600 new jobs, while the professional and business category added 8,200. The information sector added the fewest, at 100 jobs created over the last year.

By and large, employers that pay high wages are still finding available workers, the department reported. However, Knold wrote, "it is the businesses that hire workers at the lower end of the wage ladder that have the most trouble finding workers in this current environment."

When the numbers are all in, the data likely will show that 2006 was a worker's economy, in more ways than one, Knold said.

"Since labor is highly mobile and people's natural tendency is to look toward increased wages, turnover activity in the marketplace increases noticeably in this environment," Knold wrote.

"Employers find they need to increase wages to either retain existing workers or to attract new workers. This wage bidding becomes more pronounced in a high-growth, low-unemployment economy such as Utah's. Therefore, wage increases for 2006 are projected to be the highest in 15 years, with overall wage gains of 5.4 percent."

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com