An explosive brew of start-up businesses in the telecommunications and Web arenas, fast-track housing construction and glitzy Las Vegas construction numbers in the hotel and residential markets produced much of this region's unsustainable growth during the 1990s. While much of mountain west is just digging out from a good, old-fashioned recession, other regions of the United States would love to have its problems. Although housing construction has decreased in Denver, Salt Lake City and Phoenix, the rate is one that any other region would brag about. Phoenix is still seeing an enormous flow of new residents - the Valley of the Sun gained over 100,000 new residents from 2000 to 2001. Las Vegas will see several huge hotel/casino projects that will add over 8,000 hotel rooms, and a $1.4 billion job at McCarran International Airport.

ELECTRICAL WHOLESALERS' SALES

(in millions of dollars)

EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS

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