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Utah's unemployment rate ticked up to 7.5 percent in September, as high as it has been since December of 1983 when it was 7.8 percent.
The Utah Department of Workforce Services said 101,000 Utahns were considered unemployed last month, up by 500 from August when the unemployment rate was 7.4 percent. The number of jobless people increased 16,700 from September of last year and 54,300 from the same month of 2008, when the financial meltdown sent the already recession-plagued economy spiraling downward.
Jobs are being created, according to figures compiled for the department by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, but only increased by 0.8 percent from last September.
In all, said Mark Knold, the department's chief economist, "the Utah economy is improving. Yet the headwinds of the recent recession remain strong, and what employment growth is being generated is tempered by continuing credit restraints and uncertainties bred by the recession.
"A significant number of jobs were shed during the recession in Utah, with the low point reached in early 2010. The Utah economy is now recovering, but the movement upward has been slow, and there is much ground to regain."
Manufacturing remains the hardest hit industry, with 1,700 fewer positions than a year ago. But Knold said its losses over the past year have moderated, much like the construction industry which has improved over the last year but still provides jobs to 1,000 fewer people than a year ago.
"This [construction] industry has had a long and arduous employment-loss journey since late 2007. The worst has come and gone though," Knold said, predicting upcoming construction of the National Security Agency's data processing center at Camp Williams "will be enough to push construction employment back onto the positive side of the ledger."
Employment in the trade/transportation sector and government also are down from September of 2009, the latter largely because of the end of temporary U.S. Census jobs.
Utah's other seven economic sectors are on the rebound, Knold said.
The professional and business services sector has shown the most growth over the past year, adding 4,800 new jobs. Many are temporary help, the first sign of a recovery, but gains also have been registered in business support services and in the "high-paying professional, scientific and technical areas," he said.
Positive job growth also continued in the financial activities, hospitality and health care/education sectors, although Knold noted that adjustments in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' survey led to drop in the number of new health care/education jobs from up 5 percent in August to only 1.3 percent this month, "a much more reasonable evaluation."
New claims
The number of Utahns filing new unemployment claims last week was 2,408. The previous week, it had spiked to 3,161 after having been near, or below, 2,000 a week for a month.
National jobless-claim numbers followed a similar trend, declining to 452,000 from 475,000 a week earlier.