This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The latest details about Utah wages add fresh evidence that the state's economy is healing faster than the rest of the nation — albeit modestly.
The median wage for all Utah occupations was $32,050 in 2011 — up a moderate 2.4 percent from the previous year, according to Department of Workforce Services figures.
The U.S. median wage grew at a slower pace. It rose just 1.8 percent between 2010 and last year, according to the department's figures.
"That may be a little bit of an indicator that Utah's economy is perking up a little bit faster than the nation's," John Mathews, a department economist, said Thursday.
Utah's latest median wage managed to reverse several years of declining growth. In 2007, the median in the state was 3.9 percent higher than in 2006. But as the recession settled in, growth slowed. Subsequent increases in each of the succeeding years were progressively smaller before finally bottoming out in 2010 at 1.7 percent.
Nationally, the declining rates of growth haven't stopped. They have fallen for at least five consecutive years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Utah wages traditionally have been lower than U.S. wages, but the gap is shrinking. In 2006, the U.S. median wage was 8.6 percent higher than the Utah median. By 2011, however, the difference had narrowed to 7.5 percent.
Mathews said the improvement isn't huge, but it underscores how far Utah's economy has diversified from its natural resource-based origins. The state has the sixth most diversified economy in the U.S., according to Gov. Gary Herbert's Office of Planning and Budget.
The forces that continue to keep Utah wages lower than the rest of the country are related to supply and demand economics, Salt Lake Chamber economist Natalie Gochnour said.
"People want to live in Utah and they are willing to take concessions to be here,'' Gochnour said. "We are also a very young population, and people new in their careers will have lower incomes."
There is other evidence that Utah is doing better than the rest of the country. Employment in the state was 2.5 percent higher in February than in the same month of last year. By contrast, U.S. employment was up 1.6 percent.
Utah's unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in February — far lower than the U.S. rate of 8.3 percent.
Twitter: @sltribpaul —
Utah wages lag U.S. but are growing faster
Utah
2007 • $29,100, up 3.9%
2008 • $30,110, up 3.5%
2009 • $30,760, up 2.2%
2010 • $31,290, up 1.7%
2011 • $32,050, up 2.4%
U.S.
2007 • $31,410, up 3.3%
2008 • $32,390, up 3.1%
2009 • $33,190, up 2.5%
2010 • $33,840, up 2.0%
2011 • $34,460, up 1.8%
Source: Utah Department of Workforce Services, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics