SALT LAKE CITY — In spite of swirling punditry parsing the subtleties of pesky inflation, interest rate adjustments and potential tariff-induced calamities, the overall U.S. economy is showing persistent good stead.
And the Utah economy is doing even better, outperforming the nation on a slew of metrics and functioning at a level that is the envy of most other states.
Interestingly, data gathered in new statewide polling conducted by Deseret News in partnership with the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics finds Utah voters are of two minds when it comes to their feelings about our local fiscal health versus that of the nation.
US economy solid but Utah better
More, mostly positive U.S. economic news emerged Thursday with the June jobs report from the Labor Department showing U.S. employers added 147,000 positions in June, easily outperforming pre-report estimates of around 110,000 new jobs. The national unemployment rate also defied an expected uptick, instead dropping a tenth of a percent to 4.1% last month.
While the headline numbers reflect a robust U.S. labor market, last month’s job gains were overwhelmingly driven by two sectors — health care and government — and some economists registered concerns that the concentrated growth areas mask lagging performance across the broader employment spectrum.