Utah's unemployment rate has reached 5.4 percent, but state economists believe another figure — the number of unemployment claims filed each week — better reflects the labor market and that it is improving.

The 5.4 percent unemployment rate for May was announced Thursday by the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Unemployment was 3.3 percent in May 2008. About 74,800 Utahns were considered unemployed this May, compared to 45,400 a year earlier. The national unemployment rate is 9.4 percent.

"To me, the unemployment rate is not matching up with the economy with what's going on," said the department's chief economist, Mark Knold. "It's too easy for people to disappear from the economy for a while, to go back to school, to hang out (at home). If you're not actively looking for a job, you're not considered unemployed."

Meantime, the number of Utahns filing for unemployment has decreased. For the week starting June 8, around 2,700 people filed initial claims. During more robust economic times, there are 800 to 1,000 claims a week, Knold said.

"They hit a spike in the second week of January of 5,300," he said. "But that was a spike. From January through parts of May, we were doing 3,500 to 4,500 a week. Now in the early part of May and through the present time, they've been slowly coming down."

Knold said he expects the unemployment rate to continue to rise through the summer, bottoming out with about 50,000 people seeking work.

Another figure for May that the state released Wednesday was job losses. About 3.3 percent of jobs have been removed from the state's economy in the past year. That represents about 41,800 jobs, lowering total wage and salary employment to 1.2 million people.

In May 2008, job growth was positive at 1.4 percent, and 17,900 new nonfarm jobs were created in the state's economy in the previous year.

E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com

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