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The Intermountain West’s labor market was a narrative of extremes in 2021.
Utah ended the yr with the second-lowest unemployment price within the nation at 1.9% in December, a Bureau of Labor Statistics press launch final week mentioned, adopted carefully by Idaho’s 2.4%. In the identical month, Nevada had the second-highest jobless price at 6.4%.
And for the yr, the typical unemployment price in Utah and Idaho was beneath 3%, near pre-pandemic ranges, whereas Nevada’s common unemployment price in 2021 was 7.7% adopted by Arizona with 6%.
Nonetheless, because the pandemic raged on and headlines declared a “Nice Resignation” of the workforce was confounding employers making an attempt to bounce again from an financial lockdown the yr earlier than, 2021 was higher than 2020 from a jobs perspective within the Intermountain West, in accordance with a Deseret Information evaluation of the newest labor statistics.
The common unemployment price for Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming mixed final yr was about 5%, down from 2020’s common unemployment price of seven.4% within the area, however nonetheless above the three.4% in 2019.
Information studies final yr described the “Nice Resignation” as an sudden phenomenon of employees quitting or not returning to their pre-pandemic jobs. However solely about 100,000 extra individuals stop their jobs final yr than in 2019 within the Intermountain West, in accordance with bureau statistics, and the variety of individuals quitting their jobs was pretty secure over the previous decade.
The foremost exception was final yr, when 2 million extra individuals stop their jobs than in 2020 — a leap that exacerbates the opposite issues like labor shortages.
In 2020, extra individuals have been fired from their jobs than stop their jobs for the primary time in a decade, a facet impact of the pandemic and particularly in lower-wage jobs, labor officers mentioned.
Over 30 million individuals within the Intermountain West have been laid off in 2020. That’s greater than a decade’s whole of layoffs for any single state within the area.
However final yr, about 2.2 million extra individuals stop their jobs than in 2020 within the Intermountain West. Arizona had the best variety of individuals quitting jobs final yr at simply over 3 million and Wyoming had the fewest at 2.1 million.
The 4.5 million whole quits throughout the nation in November alone is the best per thirty days the bureau has ever seen.
“In November 2021, quits elevated in a number of industries, with the biggest will increase in lodging and meals providers; well being care and social help; and transportation, warehousing, and utilities,” a bureau press launch from earlier this month mentioned.
For the Intermountain West, which noticed some job market stability between the recession a decade in the past and the pandemic lockdown, the financial instability is affecting employees on a private degree.
These affected by each recessions are nonetheless struggling, the place long-term unemployment not solely impacts individuals’s possibilities of getting a brand new job, however their emotional and bodily well being as properly, as the Deseret Information reported in late 2020.
But, Julie Percival, supervisory economist and department chief for the bureau’s Southwest and Mountain Plains Data Workplace, mentioned labor drive participation is staying regular and likewise returning to pre-pandemic ranges in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
The short bounce again is one thing economists are nonetheless analyzing.
One attainable issue is a bit of the individuals “quitting” their jobs have been truly retiring, Percival mentioned. “Most of our job loss got here from retirement age.”
The onslaught of retirements may very well be as a result of work-from-home scenario, an employer’s pandemic insurance policies or individuals are going through their very own mortality, however there’s no approach to know for certain, she mentioned.
“One of many issues concerning the market that we all know proper now's that when lots of people retire, what occurs is all people strikes up and they're sucked out of the low-wage jobs,” Percival mentioned.
Over the previous decade, common hourly wages have elevated about 4% yearly within the Intermountain West. However since 2020, that’s dropped barely. It’s one other statistic that labor economists are checking out.
“Early within the pandemic we noticed a whole lot of jobs misplaced that have been decrease wage,” Bureau of Labor Statistics nationwide spokesperson Gary Steinberg mentioned. “A thought is, are these decrease wage jobs coming again or are there extra jobs in larger paying industries?”
In 2021 within the Intermountain West, Colorado paid its employees the best wage at $31.95 per hour and Idaho paid the bottom wage at $26.48 per hour.
Right here’s a glance again on the 2021 labor market in six Intermountain state:
Intermountain West employment
| State | Avg. Unemployment % | Employees laid off | Employees quitting | Avg. hourly wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Avg. Unemployment % | Employees laid off | Employees quitting | Avg. hourly wage |
| Arizona | 6.08 | 2,298,000 | 3,032,000 | $28.39 |
| Colorado | 5.93 | 2,428,000 | 2,983,000 | $31.95 |
| Idaho | 2.98 | 2,116,000 | 2,305,000 | $26.48 |
| Nevada | 7.67 | 2,248,000 | 2,587,000 | $26.50 |
| Utah | 2.58 | 2,183,000 | 2,530,000 | $29.54 |
| Wyoming | 4.80 | 2,066,000 | 2,122,000 | $27.49 |
Okay. Sophie Will is a Deseret Information contributor. @ksophiewill