Printer friendly versionA Glance at La Plata County’s Economy
By Deb Walker
Assistant Professor of Economics
Office of Economic Analysis & Business Research School of Business Administration Fort Lewis College
There is no reason to believe that La Plata County’s economy will take a nose dive in the near future. When looking at the local data available for 2006, the local economy fares very well. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the annual average pay in La Plata County in 2005 was $32,163, compared to the state average of $41,601 (or a little over 75 percent).
The latest unemployment rate available (November 2006) is 2.9 percent (compared to an annual average of 3.9 percent for 2005). Although this considered very low, which is typically seen as a good thing, it also indicates that some local employers might have trouble finding workers; and that might put upward pressure on local wages. Those industries that pay the highest average wage in the County are mining (including oil and gas extraction), followed by transportation and warehousing, information, and wholesale trade.
Major employers in La Plata County include firms in the service, retail, government and construction industries. These industries, which include tourist activity, continue to drive the local economy (along with oil and gas extraction). The 2006 data for retail sales, passengers both using the Durango–La Plata County Airport and the Durango-Silverton Railroad, visitors to Mesa Verde and lodger’s tax revenue all show increases over 2005. Employment growth does seem to be slowing slightly, decreasing a little from 2005. Industries which have seen growth in employment over the past few years have been local government, construction and information.
Agriculture still remains an important contributor to the local economy. Unadjusted average alfalfa hay prices increased in 2006 (about 5.6 percent over 2005), while calf prices fell slightly (about 1 percent). Industrial kilowatt hours used in the County stayed about constant from year to year. This is an indicator of industrial activity, including compression of natural gas through pipelines. Natural gas extraction remains an important part of the local economy. Energy prices can be very volatile, showing a large increase in the first quarter of 2006 of almost 26 percent (adjusted for inflation), an increase of 6 percent in the second quarter and then a decrease of almost 10 percent in the third quarter. Fourth quarter data is not yet available.
Other contributors to the local economy are Fort Lewis College, the construction industry, and the real estate industry. Residential real estate prices continued to increase in the first three quarters of 2006, but price increases are flattening out. Fort Lewis enrollment did not increase as hoped, and the construction building permit values, although showing a slight decrease in the third quarter of 2006, continue to remain strong. With the proposed development at Three Springs, expect construction to remain strong.
Finally, bank deposits, which are an important indicator of the ability of financial institutions to make loans to local investors, continue to increase in La Plata County. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the first six months of 2006 showed a 16.7 percent increase in deposits over the first half of 2005 (second six month data is not yet available).
Readers can find this data and more online at our Four Corners Economic Quarterly web site: http://soba.fortlewis.edu/econoweb/. We will continue to provide quarterly data of many local economic indicators for La Plata County on this web page.
