Utah job growth stays strong

As the home-building frenzy cools, the financial activities sector could slow significantly, the Workforce Services report said. But construction will continue to be a driving force for job creation, as the state added 14,500 construction jobs during the last year.

"We're seeing the residential back off a little bit, but the nonresidential is going strong," Knold said.

The Workforce Services report said the state's manufacturing sector also is showing strength, adding 5,100 new jobs over the past year.

"This is such a large contrast to what the manufacturing industry is doing nationwide," the report said. "Nearly all of the country from Missouri eastward is losing manufacturing jobs. But Utah and Nevada stand out as the two best states nationwide for adding manufacturing jobs."

Knold said he thinks Utah's job market will remain strong for at least the rest of this year, and probably into 2008.

"I'm looking at the first possibilities of where we're saying, 'Hey, we're noticing a slowdown,' but to me, the earliest that might happen is 2008, and even then not by that much," he said. "I don't see the U.S. economy heating up where we start losing labor coming in. I think we're sitting pretty good and can hold this for this year."

As Knold said, everything appears to be on cruise control. "I don't see anything fundamentally wrong with the Utah economy."

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E-mail: gkratz@desnews.com