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Show J) mis lUwwMsywd&wb JD&ps By TOM BUSSELBERG CLEARFIELD -- For the first time in years, Davis County's rate of unemployment has dipped below be-low the four percent mark. THE JOBLESS rate fell markedly marked-ly from July's 4.6 percent, down to 3.9 for August and dipped even further--to 3.6 percent, reports Davis Job Service Manager Jack Bailey. That means that theoretically one in every 28 job-seekers was out of work, and looking, last month, and compares favorably with others areas in the state. In fact, the county's workforce can feel fortunate: except for the small- ' population counties of Morgan, Daggett and Rich, more people, percentage-wise, are working in Davis than anywhere else. BY COMPARISON, one in 18 statewide, on the average, are out of work, matching Salt Lake Coun-ty's Coun-ty's figures. Weber County, however, has seen an upturn to 5. 1 percent jobless, or four percentage points above a year ago, for example, exam-ple, and far outstripping the state's largest population center, in comparison. com-parison. Looking at other nearby areas, Utah County reports one in 16 our of work, or somewhat above the state average and the highest along the Wasatch Front, while Wasatch County continues to feel the effects of Geneva Steel's cutbacks, registering regis-tering a 10.6 percent unemployment unemploy-ment rate. That figure, though, is far healthier than July's 12.4, Mr. Bailey reports. SOME 50,040 were working in the county, a hefty 5.3 percent increase, in-crease, or slightly above the state average, last month. The civilian labor force grew to 71,960, meanwhile, mean-while, at a slightly slower growth than the state average. Those figures point to an overall "bright" picture, statewide, Mr. Bailey indicates, although "as the state's economic expansion matures, ma-tures, employment growth has become be-come less dramatic, but still at a favorable level." And bouyed by a "largely stable" national economic econo-mic situation, "there is no reason" to look for a change into at least next year, he adds. ALL SEGMENTS of the economy-except the nagging slump in mining, especially coal and metal, saw an upturn over the past year, but coal mining has stabilized at a lower number of jobs and other non-metal mining has shown some job increases. Job growth in most counties remains re-mains good, Mr. Bailey says, with the bid excpetion of Juab County (Nephi), where closure of its largest employer largely accounts for nearly one in sic out of work. Box Elder County gained 8.3 per- cent in jobs over the same time in 1983, spurred by increased aerospace aeros-pace industry business, while Millard Mil-lard County grew by nearly one-fourth, one-fourth, due primarily to the Inter-mountain Inter-mountain Power project and Summit Sum-mit County gained by 8.5 percent, with residential building accounting account-ing for much of that. r RELATED to job growth was Utah's strong showing in the trades sector, with retail sales gaining by 53 percent from 1977 to 1982, up to $6.3 billion, or five percent above the nation as a whole. Concurrently, Utah's wholesale trade volume reached $8.7 billion in 1982, up by 63 percent above 1977, also a higher level than nationally, na-tionally, Mr. Bailey says, noting that employment in retail grade stood at nearly 90,000 in March, 1982, a nine percent gain and wholesale trade employed 31,000-plus, 31,000-plus, or up by 17 percent. |