Over the holidays, I traveled to Utah for snowboarding, but while I was there I noticed a lot of foreign workers, possibly from work visas. This made me think about what the actual employment rates are across the country and whether or not we have an optimal employment climate in the United States. It also made me wonder if there are any job creation solutions that could be borrowed from Utah.
I did some research and found that Utah’s current unemployment rate sits at 2.2%, which is the lowest in the country. The average unemployment rate should be at 3% – 5%, which is considered to be a healthy amount of unemployment. There will always be fluctuation in work as some people might be transitioning between jobs. This shows that Utah currently has a tight labor market in fact most jobs are filled. This would explain why a 2.2% unemployment rate is seen. Overall the unemployment rate in Utah is at a steady amount and most people have been able to find work.
This is starkly different compared to many other states in the country. According to US Bureau of Labor statistics, roughly two-fifths of all states have an unemployment rate at 4% or higher, and nearly four-fifths of all states have an unemployment rate of 3% or higher. This shows that across the nation we are at a good amount of unemployment. However, there are still 13 states that have exceptionally low unemployment and it’s important to find what factors cause each state to have low unemployment as compared to the rest of the country.
For those states with higher unemployment, there are many factors that might have caused unemployment rates to be so high. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many jobs that required people to be in an office or work place other than their home were affected by pandemic safety protocols. This would include restaurants, tourism, and factories. The highest amount of unemployment reached was 23 million unemployed Americans, 9% of whom permanently lost their jobs.
Some states did not enforce stay at home orders and therefore, enjoyed less of an uptick in unemployment. For example, South Dakota did not have stay at home orders, which contributed to higher employment. Idaho, continued to have people work remotely and experienced inflows of people who traveled into the state for skiing and other activities. Similarly, Utah did not have stay at home orders so there was minimal job loss. Additionally, people working remote jobs likely came into Utah for similar leisure activities such as skiing and snowboarding. In summary, the reason why Utah and other similar states saw less unemployment rates is because of their response to the pandemic. Finally, we observed during the pandemic that many office workers in more expensive states (such as California, Washington, and the Northeast) had the ability to work remotely and chose to relocate temporarily or permanently to less expensive states such as Idaho and Utah. Utah, also had a creative approach which tied employment to student visas, this allowed workers to come in and circumvent strict work visa policies.
When I visited Utah during the holiday season I was wondering why there were so many workers. After observing this I began to question what the employment rates were like in the country as I speculated they may have been lower. After reading about how the pandemic and other circumstances in the country impacted employment I got a better idea of why Utah’s employment rates were high. In terms of employment, stay-at-home orders allowed for more people to keep their jobs. Although safety should always come first, other states could learn from Utah that supporting businesses and tourism is essential to good employment.