The Central Region continues to show a mixed bag of county-level employment performances. Two counties continued to grow jobs, two counties continued to lose jobs, and one county slipped from job growth to job loss. Here's a brief county-by-county description of the most current data--June 2011.
Millard County--Between June 2010 and June 2011, Millard County added roughly 120 net new jobs for an expansion rate of 3.0 percent. That's actually a decrease in the growth rate from late 2010 when a major construction project inflated job growth. Most industries created new jobs and in the employment-losing industries, the declines proved mostly negligible. Construction still added the most new jobs. However, mining, professional/business services, private education/health/social services and retail trade each contributed a notable number of new positions. Click here for Millard County's second quarter data.
Piute County--Piute County remained mired in its recent job-losing scenario. Since June of last year, the county's nonfarm employment is down more than 30 jobs. In sparsely-populated Piute County that amounts to a 11.2-percent decline. Job losses in government and lesiure/hospitality services accounted for all most all of the current employment contraction. Click here for Piute County's second quarter data.
Sanpete County-- Finally, Sanpete County has joined the ranks of Utah's job-creating counties! After a two-year-plus stint of job loss, the county experienced a year-to-year net gain of 60 positions in June 2011 (up 0.9 percent). Construction, retail trade, and transportation continued to experience job losses. However, strong employment gains in professional/business services, private education/health/social services, and leisure/hospitality services proved more than sufficient to offset the aforementioned losses. Even manufacturing showed a slight uptick. Click here for Sanpete County's second quarter data.
Sevier County--Sevier came to the job-creation club early in the recovery. However, in the second quarter of 2011, its employment figures took a turn for the worse. Between June 2010 and June 2011, the county showed a net loss of 40 positions. This minor 0.5 percent decline came primarily at the hands of construction, manufacturing, and retail trade. Fortunately, most industries continued to add jobs--although not quite enough to offset the losses. Mining, wholesale trade, information, private education/health/social service, leisure/hospitality services, and government all generated net job gains. Click here for Sevier County's second quarter data.
Wayne County-- Wayne County's economy was dealt a major blow when its largest employer--Aspen Education Group--announced plans to shutdown its programs. The current nonfarm job figures reflect the beginning of that shutdown. Overall, between June 2010 and June 2011, Wayne County showed a net loss of 40 jobs (down 5.7 percent). Most of the job loss appeared in the industry that does indeed include Aspen Education Group--private education/health/social services. However, retail trade and construction also contributed to the over all job decline. Fortunately, gains in leisure/hospitality services and other services partially offset the declines or the overall employment picture would appear much worse. Click here for Wayne County's second quarter data.
ALSO, you'll find our current economic snapshots have been updated with new unemployment jobs, construction, sales and claims data. Click here to access the links to the snapshots.
