Market News

Utah’s economy continues to outperform the country with the addition of 43,700 non-agricultural jobs over the past 12 months, representing a growth rate of 3.1% that is very solid compared to the U.S. rate of 1.7%. However, growth has started to slow — albeit modestly — and this is likely to continue given the maturity of the economic cycle...

Washington State employment slowed to an annual growth rate of 1.7% — a level not seen since 2012 — and continues a trend of slowing that started in the summer of 2018. Over the past 12 months, the state added 56,100 new jobs. Month-over-month, all metropolitan areas in the state either saw the number of jobs contract or remain at their existing levels.

Colorado’s economy continues to grow with the addition of 44,800 new non-agricultural jobs over the past 12 months. This represents a reasonable growth rate of 1.7%. As stated in last quarter’s Gardner Report, we continue to see a modest slowdown in employment gains, but that’s to be expected at this stage of the business cycle. I predict that employment growth in Colorado will pick back up...

Job growth in the Las Vegas metropolitan area remains robust. A total of 28,000 new jobs were added over the past 12 months, representing an annual growth rate of 2.8%. For perspective, the U.S. as a whole is growing at around 1.7%, or less than half the rate of Las Vegas. As the labor market expands, the unemployment rate continues to trend lower...