Not since July 1978 has Utah's unemployment rate been so low - 3.8 percent.
Utah Department of Employment Security officials reported the unemployment rate declined to that figure, a drop from the 4 percent figure in September and lower than the 4.3 percent in October a year ago.Department officials also revised the number of new non-farm jobs created in the last 12 months to 29,600, which remained the same in October.
Nationally, the unemployment rate remained steady at 5.3 percent as the economy produced an unexpectedly high number of new jobs - 201,000 created in September.
The Utah service industry created the largest number of jobs and had the fastest rate of job growth, the department's monthly report said. The services industry showed a 6.7 percent growth in the number of jobs in the 12 months ending Oct. 31.
The report said that during the past 12 months, all major facets of the trade industry have had experienced significant employment growth with a net effect of 9,500 jobs being created. Wholesale trade employers led the way with a 7.5 percent increase in jobs created, but department and variety stores reported a 6.5 percent gain.
In other segments of the economy, manufacturing expanded moderately, construction and mining expanded a little and there were modest
increases in the number of government, transportation, communication and public utilities jobs.
In the finance, insurance and real estate industries, the number of jobs on Oct. 31 was the same as Oct. 31, 1988, the report said.