Summit County’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.0 percent in January, according to data released by the State of Utah this week. This rate represents a drop from a year ago, when the unemployment rate in the county was 3.6 percent.
The trend in the local unemployment rate has largely tracked the economy at large. The county’s lowest rate in the past 25 years (as far back as the state’s data goes) was in the summer of 2007 when the rate got as low as 2.4 percent. When the Great Recession hit, the rate skyrocketed to a high of 8.2 percent in November 2009.
Since that time, the percentage of unemployed people in Summit County has been in a free fall that nearly matches the degree to which the rate skyrocketed during the global financial crisis. If the trend continues, Summit County could be looking at a new record low unemployment rate in the next year or two.
Summit County currently has the third-lowest rate of Utah’s 29 counties. The only lower unemployment rates are Cache County (2.9 percent) and Morgan County (2.7 percent).