Experts: Utah workforce will stay strong

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OGDEN -- A gradual slowing in the housing market is expected to put a slight damper on job growth in the coming months, but experts are predicting the Utah economy will stay at the head of the national pack as this year progresses.

The Department of Workforce Services reported Tuesday that statewide, unemployment and job growth in May were unchanged from April, when experts called the state's economy the best in the nation.

While the statewide jobless rate of 2.5 percent for May hovers near an all-time low, job growth remains well above historical averages at 4.5 percent.

From May 2006 through May 2007, Weber, Davis and Morgan counties together added more than 7,000 jobs for a growth rate of 3.6 percent.

In the same 12 months, Box Elder, Cache and Rich counties combined for more than 2,000 new jobs and 3 percent job growth.

Utah's 54,000 new jobs in the past year represent 2.8 percent of all new jobs nationwide in the period, coming from a state that comprises about 1 percent of the U.S. population.

National unemployment and job growth rates for May held even at 4.5 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

"We are riding on the high end of our historic performance, and it seems safe to conclude that Utah will continue to excel throughout the remainder of the year," DWS Senior Economist Mark Knold said in a written statement.

Knold said that while the Rocky Mountain area remains the best regional economy in the nation, the momentum has shifted from Nevada and Arizona to Utah, Wyoming and Montana.

The rosy outlook from the department was tempered somewhat by a prediction that the local housing market has peaked and will begin to wane in the second half of this year, impacting the financial services sector as the mortgage market scales back.

While housing construction is expected to moderate, commercial and industrial building will pick up any slack, Knold said.

Persistently low unemployment has made it difficult for many companies to find enough workers, but slowing economies in Nevada and Arizona could bring more workers from those areas into the booming Utah market.

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