State is an employment hot spot in the nation

Utah's red-hot rate of job creation defied expectations in January by reaching levels not seen in 10 years.

Utah added about 52,700 new jobs in the year that ended Jan. 30 for a job-growth rate of 4.8 percent - a rate that probably is surpassed only by Nevada, the Utah Department of Workforce Services reported Wednesday.

Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho all have enjoyed the strongest job growth nationwide in recent months. A state-by-state ranking for January is not yet available, but Utah's blistering rate of employment growth probably will end up the second-highest among all states, said Mark Knold, chief economist for Workforce Services.

The 4.8 percent increase in January is well above Utah's job growth of 3.6 percent just one year ago and much higher than the national average of 1.6 percent.

Knold said the state's strong job growth is making it easier for unemployed Utahns to quickly find a job that fits their education and training. During the height of Utah's recession in recent years, many Utahns who were laid off struggled to find work at similar skill and pay levels, leaving many people under-employed.

"It's a job-seeker's market now," Knold said.

He said the ample number of available positions is also prompting people who don't like something about their job to find jobs at other companies, increasing turnover.

"It's easier now for those people to find a better-paying job or one they simply like better," he said.

The strong increase in new jobs pushed Utah's unemployment rate in January down to 3.7 percent, down from 3.8 percent in December and down from 4.9 percent in January 2005. Approximately 46,300 Utahns were unemployed in January, compared with 59,000 in January 2005.

In recent weeks, many Utah employers have started to struggle with labor

shortages, Knold said.

Ralph Tullis, president of Wasatch Cabinets in West Jordan is one of them.

Tullis lost two people recently who moved on to opportunities at other companies. He is worried about being able to fill vacant positions.

"We need people quite badly and we're just not able to come up with them," he said. "We'll run an ad for cabinet makers and we'll have no one respond. It's quite shocking, actually."

The good news for Utah's economy is that unlike economic expansions based only on low-paying jobs, Knold said today Utah's economy is adding a good mix of low-, moderate- and high-paying positions.

Employment growth in the high-paying professional and business services sector, for example, has beat expectations.

Employment gains in that sector were forecast to be 7,000 over the past year; actual employment gains in that sector probably will reach nearly 12,000, Knold said.

Many positions in professional and business services include jobs that require high levels of education and training and pay well, including architects, engineers, programmers, accountants, lawyers, industrial designers and business consultants.