Utah business index lowest since 2001
The index slipped to 85.8 in September from a revised 85.9 in August, the lowest point for the index since the full-year figure of 85.5 in 2001.
The index measures business conditions from the viewpoint of the Utah small-business owner or manager. Its base is 100.0 for 1997.
The Utah unemployment rate, the most heavily weighted component of the index, was 3.7 percent, up from 3.5 percent the month before. That's much more than the 2.89 percent rate a year earlier. A higher rate is considered positive for the index because it implies better access to Utah labor.
The state's job total rose by an estimated 3,300 jobs in the previous year, with the 0.3 percent increase being the lowest annual employment growth rate since between September 2002 and September 2003.
Nationally, the unemployment rate held steady at 6.1 percent, the highest level since September 2003, and total jobs slipped by 159,000, the ninth consecutive monthly decline and worst monthly loss in five years.
"The current 6.1 percent jobless rate is a worrisome 1.4 percent higher than the 4.7 percent rate of one year ago," wrote Jeff Thredgold, economic consultant to Zions Bank and author of the report.
The first nine months of 2008 saw a net decline of 760,000 jobs nationally, which Thredgold said "is a painful contrast to the average annual gain of 1.9 million net new jobs during 2005 to 2007. However, the average loss of 84,000 jobs monthly during 2008 has been less painful than the 181,000 average monthly job loss during the 2001 recession."
Economies globally — Thredgold mentioned India, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, South America and Canada — are being affected by the credit-market issues that have hit the United States.
"Weaker global economic growth suggests less demand for American exports to the world," he wrote. "Such exports have been at record levels in recent quarters, in part boosted by weakness in the U.S. dollar. More recently, a stronger dollar, especially versus the euro, should lead to less robust U.S. export performance, including lesser Utah exports to the world."
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com
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