The best future for San Juan County, Utah is to enhance and encourage tourism.

This is the trend in unemployment in San Juan County in Utah. The highs are due to seasonal depression of jobs.

November 14, 2015
By McKenzie Romero
 
...The bulk of those solar jobs (click here) came from SolarCity, the nation's largest solar power provider, and Vivint, which has a heavy presence in Utah. SolarCity recently announced intentions to establish regional corporate headquarters in Utah, projecting the creation of thousands of jobs over the next 10 years, the E2 report noted.
Additional solar projects — the Four Brothers solar project in Beaver County and Three Cedars solar project in Iron County — are expected to ultimately provide sufficient solar power for 126,000 homes, according to E2. Both projects are being developed by SunEdison.
Both SolarCity and Vivint work with rooftop solar systems for individual homes, while SunEdison builds solar power plants.
In San Juan County, a new wind farm will add 100 new jobs while contributing to the state's power grid....

There were 100 new jobs in San Juan County due to alternate energies. That should be built on. Other cities in Utah were far more successful in recruiting interest by these companies. Perhaps Senator Hatch should speak to the CEO again and ask to increase the companies interests in the somewhat troubled county. I might add, there is only one job opening with Solar City in San Juan County. So this was a good opportunity for them.

I really think San Juan County, Utah is used for politics. The population is low and the median income is not terrible, but, could improve. The median age is somewhat young, so these are all young families. If there are 4 people per household that means there is approximately 3800 families in the county.

San Juan County is a large parcel of land, but, there aren't many uses for that land except tourism unless the country is willing to destroy it. I honestly don't know where any farmer is going to find grazing land.

Excuse me, but the highest percentage of the people in San Juan County are age 5-17? Really? They aren't looking for jobs.

This complaining is all political. I can understand with larger families the need for increased income, but, the land doesn't lend itself to any greater income than simply destroying it. One might want to realize oil is declining in it's demand so much so that the price has to be artificially sustained. There is no future for the people of San Juan County in an industry that is declining. If the petroleum industry destroys the land the tourism will decline. I would not take that chance.

Better than 50% of the population is Native American. The leaders of that community need to focus on answers that have changed income for Native American families in other areas of the country, such as a casino. If there was a casino built it would enhance the tourism and would be a year round income. A small casino is all that is needed. The other possibility is a small amusement park for children with a theme that matches the land and it's history that would draw others from the region and state to visit. 

The unemployment rate vacillates between 5 percent and 9 percent depending on the season. That means there are about 4 percent of the county looking for work POSSIBLY. That 4 percent may be content in their season on and season off if they are parents, however, the income level of families should be pursued to increase their quality of life. The only way to REASONABLY address the needs of the people is to enhance the tourism at every turn like a small curio shop with medicinal herbs for sale along with practitioners of the skill available to charge for lessons in Native American Medicine.

To sacrifice the integrity of the land considering the petroleum industry is a failing industry, desperately so, is not a good idea. A far better answer is to increase tourism and variety of 'fun' in the county to engage tourism. If the US Senator Hatch were a Democrat these problems of quality of life would probably already be solved, but, because Republicans cater to cronies, the problems still exist in a fairly barren land that will not result in high yields of any crop.

President Obama did the very best he could for these folks in making this a monument. It will enhance the tourism. That is their best future.