Salt Lake City — Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment for July 2022 increased an estimated 3.5 percent across the past 12 months, with the state’s economy adding a cumulative 56,600 jobs since July 2021. Utah’s current job count stands at 1,664,300. July’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate is estimated at 2.0 percent, unchanged across the past three months, with approximately 35,300 Utahns unemployed. The July national unemployment rate lowered one-tenth to 3.5 percent. 

“High inflation and now two consecutive quarters of declining national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would normally be accompanied by lowering job counts” says Mark Knold, Chief Economist at the Department of Workforce Services. “But neither is the case at both the national and state levels where job growth was aggressive in July. Developments are occurring across the nation in the labor market that are diverging from past performance. Nationally, baby boomers are leaving the labor force faster than new ones are entering. This is producing unfilled jobs, lowering GDP, making labor searches difficult, and contributing to higher inflation through increased wage bidding. This labor deficit is why negative GDP change is not morphing into a jobs recession.”

Utah’s July private sector employment recorded a year-over-year expansion of 3.9%, or a 56,600 job increase. Eight of Utah’s 10 major private-sector industry groups posted net year over-year job gains, led by Trade, Transportation, Utilities (13,600 jobs); Leisure and Hospitality (12,000 jobs); Education and Health Services (10,700 jobs); and Construction (8,900 jobs). The two sectors with job contractions include Professional and Business Services (-2,800 jobs); and Financial Activities (-1,700 jobs).

• Additional analysis and tables at https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/update/index.html
• County unemployment rates for July will post on or shortly after August 22, 2022, at https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/update/une/season.pdf
• August’s employment information will be released at 7 a.m. on Friday, September 16, 2022.

Listen to Chief Economist Mark Knold shares his analysis of the July 2022 employment report: https://soundcloud.com/utahdws/utah-employment-report-july-2022