[quote=EconProf][quote=sdrealtor]Just read an article that over 30% of employment in St George is in construction. What’s that gonna look like next year EP?[/quote]
shees, sdr, you just won’t leave this thread die a natural death.
I guess you are saying the higher interest rates will choke off the St. George economy because we are so dependent on construction jobs.
For starters, people and employers are still flocking to St. George. You could double mortgage rates and a given house will still cost less per month than in any big CA city. Plug in utility rates, property taxes, cost of living, etc. and it’s no contest. Our unemployment rate is 2.1%.
There is no way construction jobs are over 30%. Your source, please.
A little googling revealed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that the category of “mining, logging, and construction” constituted 12.7% of the St. George civilian work force.[/quote]
just a hunch,… seems to me the quickest way to have a thread ignored is to point out subject matter few want to admit to or face head on
for example WRT the St. George area (like the rest of the South Western USA) there is the issue of drought
[quote] Tourism is sucking Utah dry. Now it faces a choice – growth or survival?
…Just beyond [Zion] park, the once-sleepy city of St George is rapidly expanding. Tucked into one of the hottest and driest cornersof south-west Utah, the gateway community is the fastest growing city in the US. Tourism has driven new residential growth and businesses in an area that could soon see water shortages – and it’s only expected to get worse.
Though there have been recent moves to try to curb consumption, Utah already has the highest per-capita water usage in the country. In Washington county – home to Zion and St George – usage was an alarming 285 gallons a person a day in 2020, more than double what those in Las Vegas, just hours to the south, use.
[quote] In America’s fastest-growing metro, a rising fear water will run out
…St. George and surrounding Washington County, two hours northeast of Las Vegas in Utah’s hottest and driest corner, was once known mostly as the gateway to Zion National Park. Now its stunning landscape is drawing droves of retirees and remote workers from northern Utah and beyond. The county’s population of about 180,000 is expected to more than double by 2050 — even though its single water source, the Virgin River basin, is dwindling as the West remains locked in the worst drought in 1,200 years.
…The area’s growth has been dizzying, St. George Mayor Michele Randall said. She expected the city, established in the 1860s by Mormon pioneers deployed by Brigham Young on a failed mission to grow cotton, to calm when covid hit. Instead, it swelled with pandemic-era pilgrims who decided to stay.
The city is now seeking funding for dozens of additional police officers and firefighters. But Randall said it is water that “keeps me up at night.” Utah has long pushed for a 140-mile pipeline from Lake Powell, the massive Colorado River reservoir, to pump water to the St. George region. But given the lake’s plummeting water, Randall said she has no hope for a pipeline in her lifetime. Water saving and storage must be the plan, she said.
