SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s nonfarm payroll employment for March 2021 increased an estimated 0.9 percent during the past 12 months, with the state’s economy adding 13,800 jobs since March 2020. Utah’s current employment level stands at 1,566,900.
As the Utah Department of Workforce Services reported Friday morning, March’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was estimated at 2.9%, with approximately 46,600 Utahns unemployed. In comparison, the March national unemployment rate was reported at 6.0%.
Mark Knold, chief economist at the Department of Workforce Services, said March is the first month when the economic comparison is starting to look back on the months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Job gains from here forward will start to magnify as it is compared against the job losses experienced a year ago.
“Utah’s economic situation has been improving since May 2020, which is the month after the April 2020 business closures,” explained Knold. “Utah’s steady economic improvement has been one of the nation’s best but it is still in progress and needs more time to develop, and more time to include the entire spectrum of industry-level reemployment.”
Knold said Utah’s underlying trend is positive and will continue to gain steam as the year progresses. There are still COVID-19 economic setbacks to overcome, but Utah is ahead of the national curve in undergoing economic repair.
Written by WILL FEELRIGHT, Cache Valley Daily
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