In Utah, the jobless rate edged up 0.2 percent in May to 3.3 percent, said Lecia Parks Langston, chief economist at the Utah Department of Employment Security.
Some 33,200 Utahns were unemployed in May, down from 35,700 for the same period last year when the local unemployment rate was at 3.7 percent. Despite moving up last month, Utah's unemployment rate remains very low in historical terms."The secret to analyzing data over time is to look at the overall trend . . . and Utah's jobless rate has been on a decidedly downward pattern since 1992," said Langston. "This one-month rise is hardly indicative of an upward trend but rather appears part of the normal fluctuation in the data." She said the state's labor market remains very tight and wages for many jobs continue to rise.