 |
| (Click to Enlarge) |
Kane and Iron County continued to add jobs but at a rather tepid rate. Beaver County's jobs are down slightly--mostly as the result of declining construction employment. Garfield County continued its wild ride on the employment roller coaster ride--right now its losing rather than gaining jobs.
Be sure to check out additional details and the visualization after the jump. . .
Beaver County saw its nonagricultural job totals drop by 2 percent between December 2010 and December 2011. This current 50-job loss reflects backside of the construction-employment buildup earlier in 2011. The majority of the current job loss occurred in the construction industry with the completion of a major project. The public sector proved the only other job-loser of note. Most of these government job declines occurred at the local level. However, adding in covered agriculture to the mix would drag employment down even further. Unemployment-insurance-covered agricultural employment dropped by 2.4 percent in December.The return of mining jobs and expansion in retail/wholesale trade and manufacturing did help soften the December employment blow.
Garfield County's nonfarm employment has yo-yoed wildly in recent years. Surges in employment during one year, are just offset by declines the next. The county currently finds itself on the losing side of the cycle. Compared to December 2010, jobs in Garfield County are down by more than 9 percent. While a large portion of job losses occurred in the erratic construction industry, Garfield's bread-and-butter jobs in leisure/hospitality services experienced the largest decline. In addition, these two industries were joined by a large private education/health/social services employment contraction. In fact, the only industry to make a serious job gain was retail trade.
Iron County has struggled to enter the expansion phase of the economic recovery. It's year-over employment growth rate in December remained under the 1-percent mark. Despite what seems a tepid showing, the county has managed to dig its way out of the job-loss pit. Currently, construction continues to drive job-losses--although professional and business services also took a decided employment hit. However, there are several industries which have found their way back to the economic light. Manufacturing, wholesale trade, leisure/hospitality services and government all showed notable job gains.
Kane County's pattern of job-growth and job-loss has proven rather unusual during the past three years. While everyone else was still trying to crawl out of the recession, Kane County was growing jobs during most of 2010. However, as other economies started revive, Kane County ended 2010 with a decided employment contraction. After a few ups and downs, job growth appears back on the right track at the end of 2011. Between December 2010 and December 2011, Kane County showed job growth of nearly 2 percent--not a boom, but certainly on the right side of the accounting column. Most of the current expansion is occurring in the leisure/hospitality industry although private education/health/social services, professional/business services and financial activities also made notable job contributions. Stronger gains would have been apparent if not for employment declines in retail trade and construction.
Washington County's back. After suffering an extremely long and hard recession, Washington County is currently back in employment expansion mode. During the fourth-quarter of 2011, Washington County's year-over job growth figure topped the state's rate for the first time since the recession began. The December year-to-year employment growth rate measured almost 4 percent--the county's best performance in three long years. And, every major industry joined in the employment spree--even construction is up almost 100 jobs compared with the year before. Leisure/hospitality services and manufacturing made the largest contributions. Plus, retail trade and transportation grew by more than 200 jobs each.
Be sure to use the interactive visualization below to check out your individual county's employment history.
