MORE UTAHNS FINDING JOBS IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS
Deseret NewsUtah employment grew by 1.6 percent in April 2011 compared to the same month last year, adding 18,900 jobs and boosting the number of Utahns holding down jobs to 1.2 million.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, Utah's other primary indicator of current labor market conditions, registered 7.4 percent in April, down from 7.9 percent a year ago. About 100,000 Utahns are considered unemployed, according to data released Thursday by the Utah Department of Workforce Services.
Associated Press
The national unemployment rate moved up two-tenths of a point to 9.0 percent since March.
"The Utah economy is still not operating with any sort of independence from the national economy. In other words, the national economic pressures or constraints are also the same pressures and constraints that the Utah economy faces," stated a news release announcing the latest employment data.
"Housing, high commodity prices, and government budget constraints are major headwinds working against the economy, but they are currently being countered (to a modest degree) by rising consumer and business confidence, job layoffs trending downward, and easing credit restrictions," the release stated.
The professional and business services sector is the most robust industry in Utah, adding more than 5,300 new jobs over the past year.
The manufacturing industry, one of the hardest hit by the recession, is showing signs of recovery as the state's monthly survey suggests an increase of roughly 4,600 new positions over the past year.
The education and health care sector added 3,500 new jobs over the past 12 months, while trade and transportation measured a year-over gain of 3,600 positions.
Utah construction jobs have increased by 900 over the past 12 months. "But keep in mind that this rise is off of a rock bottom loss of some 40,000 construction jobs over the past three-plus years," the DWS stated.
Economists said the industry doesn't need to recover all of those lost jobs to be healthy. The construction sector historically accounts for about 6 percent of Utah's employment base, which would require an additional 5,000 jobs in this area to reach that level, the DWS release stated.
Economists said the housing market will determine when the economic downturn is over and recovery has taken hold.
"For this to happen the marketplace must establish a bottom for falling home prices, draw down foreclosure activities, absorb any excess inventory, and push housing starts above current levels where they begin to stimulate a rebound in construction jobs."
By Michael O'Malley, Marketing and Communications, USTAR
Even as it continues to achieve significant milestones at home, USTAR is becoming nationally recognized and finding that other states are using it as a model for their own programs to increase research and commercialization.
{read more}
In a Capitol Gold Room ceremony, Governor Gary R. Herbert and Lieutenant Governor Greg Bell joined legislative and business leaders from across the state for ceremonial signings of several key pieces of job growth and economic development legislation from the 2011 legislative session.
{read more}
CONGRESSMAN MATHESON CALLS EPA TO TASK
In a letter to constituents, Congress Jim Matheson outlines his concern about EPA’s efforts to establish new rules without considering their economic impact on citizens and business.In issuing federal rules and regulations, often there’s no one who can look out, and see the forest for the trees. That is the case right now with a number of rules nearing completion by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that will have a major effect on consumers, businesses and our economy.
I have heard from many Utahns who invest in and operate the plants and equipment that produce electricity to power our lives and our economy. They worry about being in compliance with a dozen or so new environmental regulations that are rolling out over the next two years. While the costs and benefits of many of these rules have been studied individually, the EPA hasn’t stepped back to evaluate the cumulative effects. In response, I have written bipartisan legislation that seeks answers. I introduced The Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of
Impacts on the Nation (TRAIN) Act of 2011 last week in the House.
This common sense bill creates an interagency committee to study the cumulative costs and cumulative benefits of the upcoming rules and to analyze how they affect U.S. competitiveness, electricity and fuel prices, national, state and regional employment and the reliability and adequacy of our power supply. This approach brings numerous federal agencies together, to see how their individual slices of the regulatory picture appear as a whole, to those who must spend the time and the money necessary to be in compliance. The regulations deal with a variety of pollutants and the technologies that must be installed to limit or control pollution that would otherwise affect our air, water and land.
At a time when budgets are tight and our economic recovery is still fragile, I believe it is important to give those businesses who are working towards environmental improvements-- while at the same time providing jobs and affordable energy-- more certainty and transparency about what is required.
As always, your opinion matters to me. Please take a moment to provide feedback by answering the following short survey.
Sincerely,
Jim Matheson
U.S. Representative
2nd District of Utah
Manufacturing and Technology eJournal
Analysts Are Starting To String Together Trends, And They Inevitably Point To Better News For The U.S. Than For China Read more...
USA Today
According to USA Today, "Nearly two years after the economic recovery officially began, job creation continues to stagger at the slowest post-recession rate since the Great Depression. The nation has 5% fewer jobs today -- a loss of 7 million -- than it did when the recession began in December 2007. That is by far the worst performance of job generation following any of the dozen recessions since the 1930s."
Quick Manufacturing News
Manufacturing seems poised to thrive in this emerging market, but sanitation, infrastructure and land-acquisition issues pose major challenges. Click to continue
Quick Manufacturing News
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