Utah TrendLines Extra
November 1, 2009
Utah
Economic News and Data
The state's
latest job report offers the first solid hint of a turnaround in Utah's
economy, which has been battered by job losses for more than a year. Utah's economy
has lost 51,500 jobs—4.1 percent of the state's employment base of about 1. 2
million—in the year that ended in September. While job losses of this magnitude
are a sign of an ailing economy, the numbers represent a marked improvement
from August, when the year-over-year decline in jobs in Utah was significantly
higher, at 4.5 percent.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13568056
The median
selling price of existing single-family homes along the Wasatch Front has
declined 5 percent over the past year to $213,250 in the third quarter. At the
height of the market two years ago, the median price in Salt Lake, Utah, Davis,
Weber and Tooele counties peaked at $234,000, for a total correction of nearly
9 percent.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13651632
Utah Home
re-sales fell more than 10 percent during September compared to the same month
a year ago. That contrasts sharply with national numbers that show home re-sales
rose to their highest level in more than two years.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13628301
Sales of existing homes (single-family and
condominiums) in Salt Lake County in September were down 11.6 percent compared
with 1,061 sales in September 2008, according to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705339034/Home-sales-slip-116-in-Salt-Lake-County.html
Salt Lake County's apartment vacancy rate was
6.8 percent in the third quarter, up from 4.3 percent a year earlier, according
to a CB Richard Ellis report.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705336829/Salt-Lake-County-apartment-vacancy-rate-rises.html
Vacant office space in Salt Lake County hit a five-year
high in the third quarter. As of Sept. 30, the office-vacancy rate in Salt Lake
County was 14.6 percent, up from 13.8 percent in the 2008 third quarter. The
countywide office-vacancy rate reached its highest point since 2004, when it
was 20 percent.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705333867/Vacant-office-space-in-Salt-Lake-Co-hits-a-5-year-high.html
An international company that makes heart valves and
critical-care monitoring devices is expanding its Utah presence with a new
state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Draper, after accepting an incentive
package from the state. Edwards Lifesciences Corp.'s new facility is expected
to create as many as 1,000 new jobs while maintaining the 228 it already has in
Utah.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705335355/Life-sciences-company-will-move-to-Draper-create-up-to-1000-jobs.html
Reservations
made at Utah ski resorts in September for trips next January and February —the
heart of the season—are up 17 percent and 7 percent, respectively, over those
same two months in 2009.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13617787
The new St. Regis Deer Crest
Resort located at Deer Valley is set to open soon, creating 300 new Utah jobs.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705335227/Luxury-resort-brings-jobs-in-tough-economic-times.html
A number of industries in Utah have been hit
especially hard by the economic downturn, but the state's travel and tourism
industry has been able to dodge some of those blows.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705335224/Utah-tourism-industry-has-been-dodging-blows.html
ATK laid
off 550 of its employees. ATK said the layoffs were the result of reduced
federal government spending from the upcoming completion of two space and
defense programs—the space shuttle and the Minuteman III missile.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13497654
ATK's layoff
of 550 workers is not the only blow sustained this fall by Utah's aviation and
aerospace industry. Moog Aircraft Group, whose Utah operations include a
commercial division that develops flight controls for business jets, told 220
employees on Sept. 22 that their jobs will end when existing contracts are
completed.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13546293
The U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for Utah has reported it received 10,706 bankruptcy petitions during
the first nine months of 2009. That's a staggering 62 percent increase from the
same nine-month period a year ago.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13546100
Hotel
occupancy rates were down again last month, but not quite as much as the
year-to-date average. Hotels in Salt Lake County filled 66 percent of their
rooms in September, down from 73 percent in the same month a year earlier. The
statewide average fell to 60 percent last month from 66 percent in September of
2008.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13595502
The number of passengers at Salt Lake City
International Airport rose in June, July and August after 14 months of declining
numbers.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705334835/Salt-Lake-Airport-travel-increased-over-summer.html
Once
envisioned as a regional outlet mall, a 32-square-block tract of land west of
Salt Lake City International Airport is rounding into shape now as an
industrial park. A 500,000-square-foot Costco warehouse already occupies part
of what is known now as Westport Industrial Center, a development that
stretches from 300 South to 700 South between 5600 West and 6400 West.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13562024
A vast field of molybdenum below the surface
of Bingham Canyon Mine has the potential to extend Rio Tinto's Kennecott Utah
Copper mining operations there by years. But only time and more research will
determine how much of the field is developed.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705339700/Moly-may-breathe-new-life-into-pit.html
Utah State
University and the Idaho National Laboratory are joining forces for a new
research partnership in Utah's mineral-rich Uintah Basin. The deal includes the
creation of a research hub in Vernal, the eastern Utah town whose recent
history has closely followed oil and gas development. The project will focus on
finding ways to make energy development more efficient and easier on the environment.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13554003
