Job count increasing in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — More Utahns were working in February than were employed in the same month in last year.

The Utah Department of Workforce Services reported Thursday that the nonfarm wage and salaried job count for February 2011 expanded by 1.6 percent compared to February 2010, with total wage and salary employment measuring 1.2 million.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate registered 7.7 percent, down slightly from last February's rate of 8 percent. Approximately 104,000 Utahns are considered unemployed.

Nationally, the United States unemployment rate moved down 0.1 percent to 8.9 percent.

The economy continues to show incremental employment gains in Utah, according to DWS senior economist Mark Knold.

Most industrial sectors were adding jobs over the past 12 months, except for construction, information and financial activities, he said.

"In a telling sign that the economy is starting to pick up the pace in this early phase of economic recovery, the professional and business services sector added over 9,000 new jobs," Knold said. "Nearly 4,000 of these are coming from employment service agencies and business support services, two areas where increased hiring levels are generally observed as an early indicator of increased economic activity."

Being counted in the unemployment rate is contingent upon participation in the labor force — in other words, looking for a job, he said.

"Labor force population is considered as those 16 years of age and older," Knold said. "But not everyone 16 and over chooses to work, so the participation rate is always something less, and it fluctuates with good or bad economies."

In February 2008, Utah's labor force participation rate was 71.6 percent — about 72 out of every 100 people were either working or looking for work, he explained. As of February 2011, that rate has decreased to 66.9 percent implying that roughly 95,000 Utahns had withdrawn from the labor force either voluntarily or involuntarily, he said.

"And this is on top of the 104,000 who are officially counted as unemployed," he added. This gives one a better perspective of what Utah's non-employed picture looks like, and what kind of job growth will be needed going forward to undo the recession's damage, said Knold.

"This re-employment process and lowering the unemployment rate could be a drawn-out process spanning many months, if not multiple years," he said.

e-mail: jlee@desnews.com