Utah's jobless rate slips to 3.8 percent in April

Utah's unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent in April as the job market continued to show slow but steady improvement, the state Department of Workforce Services said Friday.

The state's economy supported 36,800 more jobs last month than in April of 2013, a moderate growth rate of 2.9 percent. At the same time, the number of unemployed people actively seeking work declined to 55,200 - down from 64,400 in April 2013, according to the department's latest monthly report.

Nationally, the unemployment rate is down to 6.3 percent, with and job growth was just 1.7 percent.

'Growth in both the labor force and the proportion of individuals within the labor force who are employed signals that the state economy is vibrant,' said Utah's chief economist Carrie Mayne, predicting it would remain strong 'moving into the summer and the latter half of 2014.'

Boosting her confidence were figures showing that all 10 industry sectors the state tracks had more people on the payroll in April than a year earlier.

The trend-setting construction industry was much improved over a year ago. Construction employment was up 7.7 percent over April of 2013, when that sector was trailing the rest of the recovering economy with paltry job growth of 3.4 percent.

Last month's accelerated rate meant jobs for an additional 5,500 Utah workers.

Companies involved in trade, transportation or utility work created the most new jobs - 7,900 - but that's such a big sector that the growth rate was just 3.2 percent.

The next biggest job increase occurred in the leisure and hospitality industry, where the addition of 6,800 jobs represented a 5.5 percent gain over the previous year. Businesses that provide information-related services experienced a 5.9 percent growth rate, but being a smaller sector, that translated into only 1,900 new positions.

Government employment has made a big turnaround.

In April of 2013, it was the only sector with negative employment growth - down 3,100 positions, or 1.4 percent, from 2012. But local, state and federal agencies more than made up for that decline with the hiring of 4,900 more people over the past year, department figures show.

mikeg@sltrib.com

Twitter: @sltribmikeg

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