The Ogden-Clearfield metro area ranked third in the nation for job growth in the year-long period that ended Aug. 31, according to federal statistics released Wednesday.
Payroll employment there rose by 4.9%, up by 12,100 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The only metro areas where jobs increased at a faster rate were Ocean City, N.J., at 7% and Reno, Nev., at 5.5%.
In August, 52 metro areas nationally had statistically significant job increases in the previous year-long period in nonfarm payroll employment, and 337 were essentially unchanged, the agency said.
Other metro areas in Utah also showed improvement.
Jobs increased by 4.1% in the St. George area (up by 2,800 jobs); by 3.7% in Logan (2,200 jobs); by 2.9% in Provo-Orem (7,600 jobs); and by 2% in the Salt Lake City metro area (14,900 jobs).
Overall in Utah, the job growth in that time was 3%, up by 45,900 jobs.
The bureau also reported Wednesday that the unemployment rate in all of Utah’s metro area is lower than the national average of 3.8%
The lowest among Utah’s metro areas was 2.4% in Logan (1,675 people looking for work), followed by 2.6% in Provo-Orem (8,231 people); 2.8% both in Ogden-Clearfield (9,483) and Salt Lake City (18,717); and 3.2% in St. George (2,516).
The agency said 192 metro areas had August unemployment rates below the national average, 172 had rates above it, and 25 had rates essentially equal to it.
The lowest unemployment rate in the nation was in Portland-South Portland, Maine, at 1.7%.
The highest was in Yuma, Ariz., at 23%.
