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Show Labor market sluggish "Labor market indicators for the Southwestern Utah District continued to reflect a sluggish economy during the fourth quarter of 1980." That was the major conclusion of a report of economic indicators released by the Utah Department of Employment Em-ployment Security for the last three months of 1980 in Iron, Beaver, Garfield, Gar-field, Kane and Washington counties. The district's unemployment rate jumped from a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.5 percent for the fourth quarter of 1979 to 6.1 percent for the same period in 1980. Iron and Washington counties experienced ex-perienced much higher percentages of increase in unemployment than did the other three counties in the district. Unemployment in Iron County jumped from 4.5 percent to 6.4 percent. J Washington County experienced a similar jump, from 3.8 percent to 5.6 percent. Garfield County has the highest unemployment in the area, with 7.6 percent out of work. Beaver County shows an unemployment unem-ployment rate of 6.2 percent, and Kane County has a rate of 6.6 percent, according ac-cording to the latest figures. The greatest decrease in jobs in Iron County from the end of 1979 to the end of 1980 came in the construction trades. Jobs in contract construction dropped 12.6 percent over the year. According to the report, permit authorized construction dropped even more than unemployment in the profession. The total decrease for the county was 25.1 percent for the year. That drop came entirely in residential construction, with new nonresidential buildings increasing 118.4 percent and additions, alterations see LABOR on page A3 Econo i. J continued from page A 1 d ... , , and repairs to exisitng nonresidential buildings increased 78.4 percent. However, employment in many professions in the county increased through the year. Mining jobs increased in-creased by 7.8 percent; however, thai will surely be reversed by the recent closing of the Utah International mines. Employment by the government also increased, by an average of 3.6 percent. All other categories showed minor changes. On the brighter side, gross taxable sales for the county increased 13.8 percent over the year, slightly more than the amount that could be accounted ac-counted for because of inflation. i Iron County had a total of $28,625,500 gross taxable sales for the 1980 quarter. That increase came mainly in Brianhead, Kanarraville and unincorporated unin-corporated areas of the county. Unincorporated areas experienced a 51.8 percent increase in sales; Kanarraville had a 39.9 percent increase; in-crease; and Brian Head increased by 34.9 percent over the previous year. On the other hand Parowan increased its sales by 12.7 percent, and Cedar City increased by only 9.6 percent. Paragonah was the only town in the county which had a decrease in sales over the year period; The decrease was 0.9 percent. |