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Show Unemployment Drops in Iron County A report released by the Utah Department of Employment Security shows that all counties in the Southwestern South-western District during March 1979 showed year-over decreases in their unemployment rates with the exception ex-ception of Garfield. Garfield's unemployment rate of 9.9 percent in March was the highest among the counties in the district. It was nearly ' a percentage point higher than the 9.0 percent in March 1978. Nonagricultural employment in the district was 6.7 percent higher in March 1979 than in March 1978. New retail . establishments opening and other planned developments should contribute to future job growth in the district according to the report. The Cedar City Yellow Front Store opened in May and Cedar City Job Service assisted in staffing the new store with approximately 16 employees. St. George has also had several new businesses open. However, "Job .Openings" were down in 1979 by 34.4 percent and job placements were down 24.7 percent compared to 1978 figures in Iron County. The county experienced an increase of 10.3 percent in construction. con-struction. Gross taxable sales increased in-creased 2.6 percent in 1978 over 1977 for the quarter and "Tourist Room Sales" increased 49.6 percent during the same period. Decreases from 1977 to 1978 were evident in some areas with , new car and truck sales down 10.8 percent. The report states that the filming of "The Electric Horseman" and "Harry's War" in the St. George area added an estimated $1,332,000 to the economy of that area in approximately ap-proximately 23 weeks. Gross Taxable sales were up 2.6 percent for the 1978 quarter compared to 1977. Brian Head experienced a 141.7 percent increase at that time and Cedar City had a 5.5 percent increase. Kanarraville dropped 9.6 percent, Paragonah dropped 73.2 percent, Parowan dropped 25.8 percent and other areas dropped 24.8 percent in the 1977 to 1978 comparison. com-parison. Building permits for the county indicate that total construction in the county increased 20.3 percent from 1978 to 1979. Cedar City had a decrease of 13.3 percent, Paragonah had no change, Parowan increased 322.5 percent and other areas accounted ac-counted for a 30.9 percent increase in the county. The bulk of the increases were in new residential buildings with new nonresidential buildings dropping drop-ping in permit authorized construction. |