The Utah Department of Workforce Services has released its July employment numbers, reporting that the statewide unemployment rate was at 2.0% in July, unchanged from the previous three months but 0.7% lower than July 2021.

Nationally, the unemployment rate is 3.5%, compared to 4.0% in July 2021.

Utah added 56,600 jobs since July 2021, with the state’s current job count at 1.66 million, according to DWS data. Approximately 35,300 Utahns remain unemployed.

Those numbers show why it is so hard to hire new employees. For instance, school districts are still seeking teachers, bus drivers, secretaries and maintenance crews with school now in session.

In the Provo School District, a school bus positioned in the parking lot of the old Provo High on University Avenue and 1200 North has a banner saying they are paying bus drivers nearly $24 an hour — if anyone qualified would just apply. Bus attendants are getting $21 an hour.

At the Provo MacDonald’s on Freedom Boulevard and Cougar Way, a regular line worker starts at about $14 an hour.

It’s the same throughout the valley. Restaurants, retailers and even malls have shortened their hours because they lack employees to help customers.

The Center Street Taco Bell in Orem shortened its day by closing just after the dinner rush and the Del Taco 24-hour drive-thru at 900 S. State St. in Orem was offering graveyard shift workers $20 an hour.

“High inflation and now two consecutive quarters of declining national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would normally be accompanied by lowering job counts” Mark Knold, chief economist at the DWS, said in a press release. “But neither is the case at both the national and state levels where job growth was aggressive in July.”

Knold said there are developments occurring across the nation in the labor market that are diverging from past performance.

“Nationally, baby boomers are leaving the labor force faster than new ones are entering,” he said. “This is producing unfilled jobs, lowering GDP, making labor searches difficult, and contributing to higher inflation through increased wage bidding. This labor deficit is why negative GDP change is not morphing into a jobs recession.”

According to the DWS, eight of Utah’s 10 major private-sector industry groups posted net year-over-year job gains, led by trade, transportation and utilities (13,600 jobs); leisure and hospitality (12,000); education and health services (10,700); and construction (8,900). The two sectors with job contractions include professional and business services (-2,800 jobs) and financial activities (-1,700).

County unemployment rates will be posted Monday at https://jobs.utah.gov/wi/update/une/season.pdf. August’s employment information will be released at 7 a.m. Sept. 16.

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