New seasonally adjusted unemployment rate estimates for August 2011 are now available for counties in Utah. For roughly half of Utah's counties, the adjusted jobless rate did not change. Unemployment rates for two counties--Washington and Morgan--appeared to decline slightly. The remaining counties showed a minor uptick (following the state's lead) in unemployment.
According to these estimates, most counties in Utah continued to maintain lower levels of unemployment than the national average.
On the other hand, my data-police role requires me to remind you that the county-level rates are estimates (as opposed to being based on survey data). In addition, a one-tenth of a point change either way (which is the change we're talking about for all but one county) is not statistically significant. Finally, the change in the number of jobs is a better indicator of economic well-being. New county-level jobs data should be available in the next month.
Click here to view rates for the past several months.