Economy

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s unemployment rate improved slightly last month by falling two-tenths of a percent, and Gov. Gary Herbert has declared Utah is free from the recession.

The state’s newest labor statistics show 64,000 people, or 4.7 percent of the workforce, was jobless in April.

FARMINGTON — Davis County is fast becoming a “destination” for BMX racing as it works with organizers for the third consecutive year to provide an outdoor summer track.

HILL AIR FORCE BASE — Bette Parkin says weekly trips to her favorite restaurant might have to end if the federal government implements furloughs for civilian employees of the Department of Defense later this year.

Parkin, a full-time DoD employee, is one of thousands of people at Hill Air Force Base who are looking at smaller paychecks come June.

As part of automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, the DoD has been directed to cut funding from its civilian payroll in the current fiscal year. In order to accomplish that, many civilian employees will be required to take unpaid leave time.

FARMINGTON — Davis County is “better than average” when it comes to national employment rates and state median household incomes, according to the Davis County Commission’s first-ever “State of the County” address.

The commission’s intent is to make the address an annual event in keeping residents apprised of the accomplishments of its 22 different county departments.

On Tuesday, the address allowed presenter County Commissioner John Petroff Jr. to figuratively beat his chest long, loud and hard.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Legislature opened for business Monday amid economic concerns over a potential deficit projected to be as much as $300 million.

Lawmakers opened the 45-day session, which runs from the fourth Monday in January until March, with pomp and circumstance.

Members of the Utah National Guard posted the colors, and Linda K. Evans, general president of the Relief Society Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave the invocation in the Senate.

OGDEN — When it comes to tourism in Weber County, options have generally been limited to skiing in the winter, navigating the trails in the summer or attending a downtown convention. But with farmland making up much of the county, there is an untapped resource to attract visitor dollars.

A new ordinance in the works would allow agritourism on Weber County farmland.

Visitors may be allowed to pick their own produce, learn how a dairy farm works or get behind the controls of heavy farm machinery.

SALT LAKE CITY — This could be the next great leap forward for Utah skiing: hopping from one resort in the Wasatch Range to another, with seven resorts already clustered so closely together some neighbors are separated by only a rope line.

It would make for a Euro-style experience in the mountains that loom over Salt Lake City.

By combining 25 square miles of terrain, the Utah resorts could offer North America’s largest skiing complex — three times the size of Vail and twice as big as Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia.