Utah's unemployment rate set an all-time record low in October as it dropped to 2.2%, a rate lower than at any time since such records have been kept in the state (1976).
Seasonally adjusted, there were slightly over 37,400 Utahns out of work during the month, down from ~40,000 Utahns unemployed in September.
That's the essence of the news from Utah's Department of Workforce Services in its monthly employment report issued late last week.
By comparison, Utah's unemployment rate sat at 2.4% in September; so month-over-month, we experienced a drop of two-tenths of one percent of unemployed persons in the state.
According to the Utah DFW, 1.64 million Utah citizens were employed in October, a gain of 15,000 new workers in one month.
In contrast, October's average unemployment rate across the United States dropped as well, to 4.6%, down from 4.8% in September.
According to Mark Knold, Chief Economist at Utah's Department of Workforce Services,
"... October’s unemployment rate is Utah’s lowest unemployment rate ever recorded. It is the outcome of an economy largely moving along at the forceful pace it did before the pandemic with a labor force that does not desire to be engaged at the same levels as it did before the pandemic. This makes for fewer available workers."
When we reported on Utah's unemployment figures last month we wrote that we were probably "near the bottom, unemployment-rate-wise" in Utah. And perhaps we are.
But for October, at least, that is not the case.
