According to a recent CNN/Money magazine report, Tooele County is the hottest job market in the nation right now. That’s a remarkable distinction that makes us a bull among bears these days. Not only are we defying a national economy teetering near recession, but we’re also creating far more jobs locally than the state of Utah as a whole. According to Jim Robson, regional economist with the Utah Department of Workforce Services, Tooele County’s job growth rate was between 4 percent and 4.2 percent from May 2007 to May 2008, compared to a statewide average of 1.4 percent over the same period.

So we’re creating jobs at almost four times the rate of the rest of the state. And that trend is likely to continue in the near-term future as large employers like Allegheny Technologies, Big 5 Sporting Goods, La Quinta Inn and Gold’s Gym come on-line.

Tooele County’s hot job market couldn’t come at a better time. With gas prices soaring, more and more county residents are reconsidering the costs of commuting into Salt Lake City — both the economic costs and the loss-of-lifestyle costs. Many people want to work closer to home, and that’s a trend business owners and economic development specialists should tap in the months and years ahead.

Commuter communities across the nation are hurting, their real estate values plummeting as they collapse under the gravity of rampant residential growth without nearby employers. Hopefully, we can avoid that trend by transitioning from a hot residential real estate market to a hot jobs market, with businesses vying to move in to be closer to our large — and perhaps more stay-at-home — consumer base and ready pool of workers.

Towns across the nation are discovering that the future is not selling homes to commuters, but developing live-work-play communities that are self-sustaining. Our government leaders would do well to remember those lessons, and continue to keep business development and job creation a front-and-center issue. They should do everything possible to ensure that more and more Tooele County residents can find shop, play, and most importantly, work closer to home.