Idaho added 14,700 new jobs in 2017, representing a growth rate of 2.1%. Although this is still a reasonable figure—and well above the total U.S. rate— this rate continues a cooling off we’ve seen over the past few quarters, which is to be expected as the state has essentially reached full employment.

The Washington State economy added 104,600 new jobs over the past 12 months. This impressive growth rate of 3.1% is well above the national rate of 1.4%. Interestingly, the slowdown we experienced through most of the second half of the year reversed in the fall, and we actually saw more robust employment growth. The counties contained in this report added 13,597 new jobs over the past 12 months...

The State of Oregon added 30,600 new jobs over the past 12 months, representing an annual growth rate of 1.7%. Although job growth continues to slow, solid gains were still seen in the Construction (+7,400), Education & Health Services (+6,400), and Leisure & Hospitality (+5,200) sectors. Oregon’s unemployment rate was in record low territory for all of 2017, diving to 3.6% in May of...

The State of Utah added 41,200 non-agricultural jobs over the past 12 months, representing a solid growth rate of 2.8%. Although the area has experienced a slowing in employment gains, the economy is running at full employment, which limits how many new jobs can be created. In last quarter’s report, I forecasted that the pace of employment growth was likely to kick back up during the last...