“All of 2022 will be categorized as a robust economic year for Utah,” Mark Knold, chief economist at DWS, said in a press release. “For most of the year, job growth was above average. Job availability and labor utilization was so pervasive that the unemployment rate fell to an historical low of 2.0%. This year starts with the unemployment rate at 2.2%, which still speaks to that same labor-strength platform. This is the launching point for Utah’s 2023 economy.”

Also staying at 2.2% is the unemployment rate for Utah County, a continuation of November’s 2.2% and up from 1.9% in 2021. According to a Wallethub report, the state’s employment change from November to December was the 14th worst in the United States.

After hitting a 10-year high of 7.7% in April 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Utah County’s unemployment fell each month until a low of 1.7% in March 2022. It has either risen or stayed even every month since March.

Nonagricultural employment in the Provo-Orem metropolitan area, which covers Utah and Juab counties, either showed growth or stayed even in most categories.

Over the year, though, the only industries to show a decrease in employment were wholesale trade (2.5%), information (0.6%), financial activities (3.8%) and professional/business services (3.8%). Financial activities and professional/business services were the only industries to decrease statewide in 2022.

Jared Mendenhall, public information director for DWS, attributed the decrease in the financial activities sector to an increase in mortgage rates and job losses in the mortgage and banking industries.

Layoffs in the tech world and Silicon Slopes in December — notably at Pluralsight, Route, Podium and more — would be reflected in the information and professional/business services drops.

“Over the course of the year, we lost 300 jobs in that sector. This is a normal time of the year to see unemployment climb and then we will normally see those trail off,” Mendenhall said. “If you were involved in one of those layoffs, you want to contact Workforce Services as soon as possible.”

Industries seeing the highest job growth in the Provo-Orem area were educational and health services (6.3%) and transportation, warehouse and utilities (3.6%).

Also shown in the jobs report is a 21.6% increase in jobs for the natural resources, mining and construction industries — though data shows the industry reflects a small fraction of employment in Utah County.

Utah’s statewide unemployment rate of 2.2% is the lowest in the United States and well below the national level of 3.5%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The Utah economy ended the year on a strong note,” Mendenhall said.