Purgatory Correctional Facility completes expansion

With construction completed, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to usher in a single level, 14,000 square foot, low security detention facility in Hurricane, now known as the Community Corrections Center, which replaces the dilapidated modular structures that are 16 years out of date. The $2 million building has two large, open dorms, which hold 60 bunks each, in addition to laundry, dining, bathroom and shower facilities. The new facility has a capacity of up to 128 inmates and is designed for expansion if needed. St George News

Census Bureau releases EEO Tabulation

If you are required to submit an EEO-1 report to the federal government, or you are just interested in occupational data, you’ll be pleased to know that the Census Bureau has released the first new Equal Employment Opportunity tabulation in almost a decade.

This tabulation uses the 2006-2010 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates rather than the decennial Census data of past eras. This tabulation is a collection of detailed tables that provide extensive detail about the workforce composition and work characteristics of people across the country.

The EEO Tabulation presents a variety of tables featuring the following variables: detailed occupation (488 categories), EEO occupational groups (14 categories), EEO-1 job categories (9 categories), state and local job groups (8 categories), federal sector job categories (9 categories), industry (90 categories), race and ethnicity, citizenship, sex, educational attainment, older age groups, younger age groups, earnings, unemployment and when last worked.

The visualization that accompanies this post shows just a fraction of the information that is available for detailed occupations. As usual, you can access the EEO data via American Factfinder.  

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Not all tables are available for all geographies. For Utah, the tables are available for the state and the following counties, places and some Metropolitan Statistical Areas, including:
• Box Elder County
• Cache County
• Davis County
• Salt Lake County
• Tooele County
• Utah County
• Washington County
• Weber County
• Layton City
• Millcreek CDP
• Ogden City
• Orem City
• Provo City
• St. George City
• Salt Lake City
• South Jordan City
• Taylorsville City
• West Jordan City
• West Valley City

These tables are available by residence geography (where people live), worksite geography (where people work), and commuting flows (tables showing a central worksite and the flow to that worksite of workers from up to nine sources). Data outlined in the tables includes, gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, industry, unemployment status, citizenship status, and earnings.

Wildfires threaten summer Rocky Mountain tourism

Searing, record-setting heat in the interior West didn't loosen its grip on firefighters struggling to contain blazes in Colorado, Utah and other Rocky Mountain states.

Colorado has endured nearly a week of 100-plus degree days and low humidity, sapping moisture from timber and grass, creating a devastating formula for volatile wildfires across the state and punishing conditions for firefighters.

"When it's that hot, it just dries the fuels even more. That can make the fuels explosive," said Steve Segin, a fire spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Much of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado are under a red flag warning, meaning conditions are hot, dry and ripe for fires. CBS News

Utah home sales up in October

Utah home sales rose for the fifth straight month in October — up nearly 25 percent from last year, according to a new report from the Utah Association of Realtors. During the month, Utah Realtors sold 2,819 homes, townhomes and condos compared to 2,261 sales last year. It was the fourth consecutive month of double-digit sales increase. Since the beginning of the year, Utah home sales are up over 7 percent compared to the same 10-month period in 2010.

The month's inventory in Uintah County is 4.6 months and prices are up nearly 14 percent, a release states. Similarly, in Washington County, the month's supply is 6.5 months and the median price has increased about 11 percent from last October. Statewide, the number of homes on the market has come down more than 21 percent over the past year — the fewest amount of homes on the market since mid-2007 and the eighth consecutive month of double-digit declines. In October, the median price of homes sold in Utah was $174,750, down 3.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

In addition to Uintah and Washington counties, several other areas saw increasing prices, including Emery, Grand, Juab, Morgan and San Juan counties. The median price in Weber County stayed nearly the same, coming in at $139,500 compared to $137,990 last October. Deseret News

Sundance rebounds, Utah movie industry on the rise

The Sundance Film Festival is bouncing back from a two-year economic downturn, and the head of the Utah Film Commission said the state has seen an upturn in the film business in recent months.

“Our projections are the overnight attendance for the festival will be up 12 percent this year over last year,” said Chamber of Commerce CEO Bill Malone. “It’s not just on the front end or the back end, it’s an increase in visitation every day of the festival.” This comes after Sundance business took a hit in 2009 and 2010 because of the struggling economy.

For his part, Utah Film Commission Director Marshall Moore described an uptick of another kind.

“Not only are we the host state of the Sundance Film Festival, we hosted 25 film and television productions” in 2010, Moore said. The list includes “127 Hours” and the upcoming movies “John Carter of Mars,” “Darling Companion,” “The Age of Dragons” and “Unicorn City.”

“Overall, the film industry in the state of Utah is healthy. We had our best year ever last year,” said Moore. Movie and TV productions brought the state “over a thousand jobs last year, and over a $50 million impact for the state of Utah.”

He said that was especially true in rural Utah, “where much of the economic impact took place. Although a lot of it does take place in Salt Lake, we saw it in areas like Moab and Kanab and Delta and Hanksville. More than we’d seen in any other single year since I’ve been the director of the film commission.” Salt Lake Tribune

National park visits boom amid recession

Despite the recession, or perhaps because of it, 286 million visitors flocked to national parks last year, an increase of 10 million people. Utah's national park units attracted just over 9 million visitors during the year, up by 300,000. In Utah, Zion National Park attracted the most visitors of any park unit in the state: 2.7 million, up by 45,000. That set a new all-time visitation record. Zion also ranked No. 7 in visitation among parks nationwide. Elsewhere in Utah, park visit increases and decreases varied widely. Remote Rainbow Bridge National Monument attracted the biggest increase by percentage — 18.7 percent, or a jump of nearly 18,000 visitors. The biggest decrease was at Cedar Breaks National Monument, where visitation dropped by 8.5 percent or by nearly 46,000 people. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Lake Powell) attracted the second-most visits of any park unit in the state: 1.96 million visitors, up just 13,000 from the previous year. Bryce Canyon National Park attracted 1.2 million, up by a booming 16.6 percent.Arches National Park attracted 996,312 visitors, up 7.3 percent; Capitol Reef National Park attracted 617,208 visitors, up 2 percent; Canyonlands National Park attracted 436,241, nearly unchanged from 2008; and Dinosaur National Monument attracted 203,862, up 1 percent. Also, Timpanogos Cave National Monument attracted 138,571 visitors, up 12 percent; Natural Bridges National Monument attracted 92,023, nearly unchanged from 2008; Golden Spike National Historic Site had 45,334. The Deseret News