Utah added 20,600 nonfarm payroll jobs over the 12 months ending in August, while its unemployment rate slipped to 3.5%, according to state figures released Friday.
Total payroll employment reached 1,788,800, a 1.2% increase from August 2025. The state rate remained below the national unemployment rate of 4.1%, and Utah was among 19 states with rates statistically lower than the national figure, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
The Utah Department of Workforce Services said private-sector employment grew 1.6% over the year, adding 23,600 jobs. Eight of the state’s 10 major private industry groups expanded. Professional and business services led with 8,500 additional jobs, followed by education and health services with 4,900 and leisure and hospitality with 4,000. Information employment declined by 2,300, while natural resources and mining lost 200 jobs, according to the department’s monthly release.
The statewide unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point from July. About 64,100 Utah residents were unemployed and actively seeking work, the department said. Senior economist Ben Crabb described the market as stable but noted that hiring had cooled around the edges, making conditions more competitive for workers seeking secondary hours, part-time jobs or a first entry into employment.
The report is best read as steady growth rather than a rapid acceleration. Utah’s employment dashboard shows the annual payroll growth rate eased from 1.4% in July to 1.2% in August. National payroll employment grew 0.3% over the year by the same state-comparison measure, leaving Utah’s rate above the U.S. pace.
Utah’s month-to-month changes were not among the statistically significant shifts highlighted by federal analysts. Nationally, unemployment fell in eight states and the District of Columbia, while payroll employment rose significantly in four states. Utah’s movement therefore fits a broader August pattern of relative stability.
As with every monthly employment report, the job count and unemployment rate come from separate statistical systems. Payroll employment is based on a survey of establishments and measures jobs by workplace location. Unemployment is modeled largely from a household survey and measures people by residence. The federal technical explanation says the two series are not directly interchangeable, and August figures are preliminary.
That distinction matters for interpreting the private-sector total. Private employers added more jobs over the year than the net statewide increase, indicating that losses elsewhere offset part of the private gain. The official release did not identify every offset in its summary, so the headline should not be read as uniform growth across all sectors.
County-level figures will provide a clearer view of local differences after their scheduled release. For now, the statewide data show that Utah continued to add jobs and maintained a lower unemployment rate than the country overall, even as its pace of payroll growth moderated from the previous month.
