Last Updated :
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July 3, 2019
Utah Employment Statistics- 103,667 employers
- 1,478,814 employees
- $933 average weekly wage
- The average weekly wage is 15.3% below the national average
- The cost of living is 1.8% below the national average
Types of Employers (Private Sector vs Government Agency)
As an employer in Utah, you are most likely to be running a private company rather than a government agency. 96.1% of employers run private companies in the state, 0.9% less than the national average of 97.0. The remaining 3.9% of employers are government agencies: 0.5% work in a federal agency, 0.9% work for the state and 2.4% work for local government. The chart below illustrates the breakout of employers by type.
84.4% of employees work for a private company. This is 0.9% below the national average of 85.2%. Local government agencies employ 8.6% of the workers in the state, state government agencies employ 4.6% of the workers and the federal government employs 2.4%. The percentage of employees working for a government agency (15.6%) is 0.9% higher than the national average. The chart below illustrates the breakout of employees by type of employer.
The average weekly wage in Utah is $933 per week, which is 15.3% greater than the national average of $1,101 per week. Utah workers that are employed by private businesses earn $934 per week, 15.1% lower than the national average for private company employees. Employees of federal government agencies in Utah earn $1,383 per week, a premium of 48.1% compared to what employees of private companies earn. The chart below illustrates the average weekly by type of employer.
Leading Sectors
Businesses by Sector
The sector with the greatest number of businesses in the state is Professional services with 15.4% of the businesses in the state. Construction (11.2%) and Healthcare (10.2%) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Sectors by # of Businesses
| Sector | # Businesses | % of Bus. |
|---|
| Professional services | 16,012 | 15.4% |
| Construction | 11,588 | 11.2% |
| Healthcare | 10,614 | 10.2% |
| Retail trade | 10,398 | 10.0% |
| Other services | 6,325 | 6.1% |
| Wholesale trade | 6,188 | 6.0% |
| Waste services | 6,163 | 5.9% |
| Accommodation and food services | 6,038 | 5.8% |
| Finance and insurance | 5,954 | 5.7% |
| Real estate and rental | 5,581 | 5.4% |
| Manufacturing | 4,386 | 4.2% |
| Transport and warehousing | 2,716 | 2.6% |
| Information | 2,491 | 2.4% |
| Educational services | 1,653 | 1.6% |
| Arts and entertainment | 1,344 | 1.3% |
| Company management | 886 | 0.9% |
| Mining and oil extraction | 548 | 0.5% |
| Agriculture and forestry | 454 | 0.4% |
| Utilities | 242 | 0.2% |
| Unclassified | 77 | 0.1% |
Employees by Sector
The sector with the greatest number of employees in the state is
Retail trade with 11.7% of the employees in the state.
Healthcare (10.3%) and
Manufacturing (8.9%) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Sectors by # of Employees
| Sector | # Employees | % of Emp' |
|---|
| Retail trade | 172,383 | 11.7% |
| Healthcare | 152,367 | 10.3% |
| Manufacturing | 132,144 | 8.9% |
| Accommodation and food services | 123,642 | 8.4% |
| Professional services | 104,637 | 7.1% |
| Construction | 104,345 | 7.1% |
| Waste services | 93,036 | 6.3% |
| Finance and insurance | 66,828 | 4.5% |
| Transport and warehousing | 57,032 | 3.9% |
| Wholesale trade | 51,010 | 3.4% |
| Information | 36,802 | 2.5% |
| Other services | 36,112 | 2.4% |
| Educational services | 34,461 | 2.3% |
| Arts and entertainment | 24,896 | 1.7% |
| Real estate and rental | 20,756 | 1.4% |
| Company management | 17,958 | 1.2% |
| Mining and oil extraction | 9,468 | 0.6% |
| Agriculture and forestry | 5,686 | 0.4% |
| Utilities | 3,915 | 0.3% |
| Unclassified | 64 | 0.0% |
Average Weekly Wage by Sector
The sector that pays their employees the highest is
Utilities paying $1,966per week compared with the state average of $934.
Company management ($1,832) and
Unclassified ($1,603) round out the top 3 sectors.
Table: Wages by Sector
| Sector | Wkly Wage | vs St Avg. |
|---|
| Utilities | $1,966 | 210.5% |
| Company management | $1,832 | 196.1% |
| Unclassified | $1,603 | 171.6% |
| Information | $1,507 | 161.3% |
| Mining and oil extraction | $1,488 | 159.3% |
| Professional services | $1,424 | 152.5% |
| Finance and insurance | $1,410 | 151.0% |
| Wholesale trade | $1,325 | 141.9% |
| Manufacturing | $1,115 | 119.4% |
| Construction | $982 | 105.1% |
| Real estate and rental | $971 | 104.0% |
| Transport and warehousing | $968 | 103.6% |
| Healthcare | $846 | 90.6% |
| Educational services | $812 | 86.9% |
| Waste services | $698 | 74.7% |
| Other services | $686 | 73.4% |
| Agriculture and forestry | $658 | 70.4% |
| Retail trade | $644 | 69.0% |
| Arts and entertainment | $543 | 58.1% |
| Accommodation and food services | $355 | 38.0% |
Leading Industries
Businesses by Industry
Each broad sector is made up of specific industries. In Utah. the industry with the most businesses is
Restaurants and other eating places with 4.5% of the businesses in the state (with 4,684 employing 95,303 workers).
Management consulting services (3.6%) and
Computer systems design and related services (3.2%) round out the top 3 industries. The Top 10 Industries in the state are:
| Industry | # Businesses | Emp/Biz |
|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 4,684 | 20.3 |
| Management consulting services | 3,768 | 3.6 |
| Computer systems design and related services | 3,282 | 8.2 |
| Residential building construction | 2,550 | 5.0 |
| Offices of real estate agents and brokers | 2,366 | 1.5 |
| Services for the elderly and disabled | 2,354 | 3.3 |
| Offices of physicians | 1,953 | 11.3 |
| Accounting and bookkeeping services | 1,773 | 6.1 |
| Offices of dentists | 1,726 | 7.6 |
| Insurance agencies and brokerages | 1,630 | 4.6 |
Employees by Industry
The industry with the greatest number of employees in the state is
Restaurants and other eating places with 6.4% of the businesses in the state. The industry employs 95,303 in 4,684 businesses, there are 20.3 employees on average in each of these businesses.
General medical and surgical hospitals (2.2%) and
Computer systems design and related services (1.8%) round out the top 3 industries.
Table: Industries by # of Employees
| Industry | # Emp | Emp/Biz |
|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 95,303 | 20.3 |
| General medical and surgical hospitals | 32,758 | 425.4 |
| Computer systems design and related services | 26,985 | 8.2 |
| Temporary help services | 25,311 | 32.7 |
| General merchandise stores including warehouse clubs and supercenters | 24,087 | 79.5 |
| Offices of physicians | 22,104 | 11.3 |
| Supermarkets and other grocery stores | 21,986 | 59.1 |
| Hotels and motels except casino hotels | 19,893 | 30.5 |
| Management of companies and enterprises | 17,958 | 20.3 |
| Electrical and wiring contractors | 15,956 | 15.0 |
Average Weekly Wage by Industry
The industry that pays their employees the most is
Investment banking and securities dealing, paying $3,692 compared with the state average of $934.
Portfolio management ($3,674) and
Spectator sports ($2,909) round out the top 3 industries.
Table: Wages by Industry
| Industry | Wkly Wage | % of Avg |
|---|
| Investment banking and securities dealing | $3,692 | 395.3 |
| Portfolio management | $3,674 | 393.4 |
| Spectator sports | $2,909 | 311.5 |
| Other financial vehicles | $2,879 | 308.2 |
| Petroleum refineries | $2,511 | 268.8 |
| Software publishers | $2,315 | 247.9 |
| Telephone apparatus manufacturing | $2,239 | 239.7 |
| Natural gas distribution | $2,154 | 230.6 |
| Photographic equip. merchant wholesalers | $2,153 | 230.5 |
| Iron and steel mills and ferroalloy mfg. | $2,152 | 230.4 |
Company Size
Utah Businesses by Size
The
solopreneur company, has the most businesses in Utah by far. 61.4% of all businesses in the state have fewer than 5 employees. The 93,006 small businesses in the state represent 95.7% of all private businesses. The national average is 92.6%. (Small businesses have fewer than 50 employees, Solopreneurs employ fewer than 5.) The pie chart below illustrates the ratio of business sizes.
Utah Employees by Business Size
The largest companies in the state represent 117.1% of all employees, which is 21.3% lower than the national average of 138.4%. Interestingly, the smallest companies in the state employ a higher percentage than the largest companies, this is not typical. The solopreneur (those that employ fewer than 5) companies employ 91.5% of all workers, which is 0.0% higher than the national average of 91.5%. All small companies, those employing fewer than 50 people, represent 578.3% of the labor force in the state, 28.3% more than the national average of 550.0%.
Utah Avg Weekly Wages by Business Size
The smallest companies in Utah (those with fewer than 5 employees) pay workers 2.1% more than the national average ($996 per week as compared to the national average of $975 per week). The largest companies in Utah (those with more than 1,000 employees) pay 42.8% workers below the national average ($1,318 per week as compared to the national average of $1,882 per week).
Data Sources
About the Writer
This page was created and is maintained by Kurt Tietjen, Founder of Stavera, High Peak Media & HomeGearWorks.com. Kurt is an executive, data scientist and software engineer who holds an MBA in Management Information Systems. In 2010, he partnered with scientists at Northwestern University to launch The Street Wire. This was one of the first mainstream uses of what would become “Narrative Science”, an artificial intelligence platform specializing in natural language generation. You can contact Kurt on LinkedIn here.