Additionally, only eight percent of Hispanics were connected. The number of people on line is also affected by income. They import dollars to the town and export services and are considered to have the same economic multiplier as a manufacturing company. These small companies may be helping to buffer the effects of last year's Phelps Dodge layoffs in Playas, which were expected to damper Silver City's economy significantly. We didn't know how the layoffs would affect us.
Gross receipts are down.
But local people are coming in to find out about starting new businesses. In 1982 and 1983, the unemployment rate in Silver City was 40 percent. As a result of increased tourism and business retention and expansion, it now stands at 10 percent. Tourism efforts have included extensive marketing of Silver City's fine arts events, such as the annual Art Walk and the Mimbres Region Arts Council Blues Arts Festival that filled the city's hotels last year. One old hotel, the Murray in downtown Silver City, has become home to transients, not tourists, however.