Based on today’s Employment Report, if we are not in a recession, it is a darned good imitation of one,” said Kevin Giddis, managing director of fixed income at Morgan Keegan.

“I haven’t seen a job report this recessionary since the last recession,” said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “This is a picture of a labor market becoming clearly infected by the contagion from the rest of the economy.”

Utah’s employment is still relatively strong, but there are some areas weakening. According to the recent Economic Report to the Governor Utah has 105,000 jobs statewide in construction. Construction jobs increased by 11% from 2006 (10,000 new jobs), however the previous year construction jobs increased by nearly 17%. Utah job growth in construction and mining is definitely slowing, but many other industries continue to remain strong.

This map represents a nice national illustration to where job growth, by county, is above or below the national average.

Source: By Labor Department Via The City Cafe