Utah jobless rate up in December

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's unemployment rate jumped by 0.4 percentage point to 6.7 percent last month — its highest rate in 23 years.

The Utah Department of Workforce Services reported Thursday that in December 2008, the state's jobless rate was 4.1 percent.

The last time Utah's rate was this high was early 1987 when it reached 6.9 percent.

"The unemployment rate rise is not a surprise, and we expect it to go up further before all is said and done," said Mark Knold, senior economist for the department.

"There are nascent signs that job growth is picking up. Unfortunately, job losses are still occurring. Hopefully, we will get to a point soon where the job gains will counterbalance the job losses. The next anticipated step thereafter will be for the job gains to overwhelm remaining job losses."

Approximately 91,200 Utahns were considered unemployed in December 2009, compared with 57,300 the previous December, an increase of 33,900 unemployed workers.

The state's nonfarm wage and salaried job count for December decreased by 2.8 percent over the past 12 months, according to figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Utah economy lost nearly 35,000 jobs in 2009, lowering total wage and salary employment to just over 1.2 million.

The U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10 percent for December.

Construction still showed the largest Utah decline from a year ago, with 12,200 jobs lost. During the past two years, more than 36,000 construction jobs have been shed in the state, taking employment in that sector to its lowest level since 2004, the department said in a news release.

The recession has struck the leisure and hospitality industry particularly hard, as well, with year-over-year losses totaling 8,800 jobs, a 7.8 percent decrease in 2009.

Manufacturing is another industry suffering during the economic downturn, losing 8,500 jobs last year. The two-year employment losses in the manufacturing sector are approaching 17,000, matching manufacturing employment levels last seen in 2003.

Health care continued to buck the job-loss trend, adding 6,200 new jobs to its Utah payrolls last year. Since the start of the recession, health care has added more than 12,000 new jobs statewide.

Government employment was another sector that has expanded during this recession.

Federal government employment added 500 positions over the past 12 months, with local government payrolls increasing by 2,500 jobs.

By contrast, state government payrolls contracted by 200 positions during the last 12-month period.

e-mail: jlee@desnews.com