Utah sustained the third-highest rate of federal job losses in the country from 1989 to 1997, but growth in other industries such as high technology, service and construction more than offset the decline.
"It's guns to butter," said Ken Jensen, chief economist for the state Department of Workforce Services.Overall, federal employment in Utah declined by 9,800 jobs - 24.5 percent, according to a study by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y.
At the end of 1997, Utah's federal employment stood at 30,200, down from 40,000 in 1989. Utah actually lost 10,100 defense jobs but gained 300 other federal jobs, the study showed.
Utah lost 44.7 percent of defense jobs alone, the fourth largest decline in the country.
Job losses came largely at Hill Air Force Base, Tooele Army Depot and Defense Depot Ogden.
Hill's civilian employment dropped by about 4,000 jobs; employment at Tooele Army Depot declined by 2,200; and about 1,000 jobs were lost when Defense Depot Ogden closed.
The study showed federal job losses this decade were higher among states that saw the least federal job growth in the 1980s, said Sam Ehrenhalt, who wrote the study.
"Some parts of the country were able to hold onto federal jobs to a larger extent," Ehrenhalt said.
Twenty years ago, losing nearly 10,000 federal jobs would have sent Utah into a tailspin, said Brad Barber, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget.
"We were probably too dependent on federal jobs," Barber said, but the state's economy is now one of the nation's most diverse.
He cited growth in high-technology manufacturing, services and construction as examples of Utah's economic diversity. Utah's high-tech industry, for example, includes more than 460 companies with approximately 40,000 employees.
Utah also ranks seventh among states in per capita exports to Asia.