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THE SETTING 15 Changes in the employment pattern in the Phoenix area from December 1965 to December 1966 are similarly illustrative.. Employment in manu- facturing increased 8.0 percent (an increase of 4,600 jobs), while employ- ment in agriculture decreased 9.0 percent (a decrease of 1,900 jobs). At the start of 1967, wholesale and retail trade accounted for 19.9 percent of the local civilian labor force, manufacturing for 18.8, government for 15.0, and agriculture for 5.8. It seems clear that recent economic growth, in Arizona ~t least, has not been stimulated by irrigation and has not been impeded by water scarcity. Raising livestock is the basin's principal agricultural pursuit, particularly in the northern region (Figure 6). Much of the land is considered by ranchers to be suitable for little else. Of the basin's irrigated land, 30 percent is used to grow alfalfa as winter feed for the many herds of sheep and cattle that graze the range. Crop production in the basin is dependent almost wholly on irrigation. About 2.6 million acres of land (1.7 percent) in the Colorado River watershed are now under irrigation, and an additional 500,000 acres in the Salton basin of southern California are irrigated with Colorado River water. In the lower basin, citrus fruits, cotton, winter vegetables, and other produce are raised, while the southern end of the upper basin is noted for temperate-climate fruits and other high-value crops. The extensive mineral deposits of the basin have an annual output valued at several hundred million dollars. In the upper basin, coal, oil, and natural gas are the most extensive and commercially important mineral resources. In the lower basin, copper is the leading mineral commodity. In addition to the present mineral reserves (exploitable at a profit), the vast oil-shale resources of the upper basin foreshadow the future. The Green River shale, extending over 16,500 square miles in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, contains the equivalent of 2,000 billion barrels of oil (the present annual consumption in the United States is about: 4 billion barrels), of which more than 300 billion barrels is recoverable with present technology or may become economically recoverable in the near future. Some experts forecast production from oil shale of at least two million barrels daily by the 1980's (Sloan, 1965). The spectacular natural beauty and sunny climate of the Colorado basin attracts vacationers and health seekers from all parts of the country. Of new households established between 1960 and 1967 in the Phoenix area, 20 percent came because of health, 14 percent for climate, and 9 percent for retirement:. Only 37 percent were based on employment. The federal govern- ment administers more than 70 percent of the basin as national forests, na- tional parks, Indian reservations, and similar holdings-a matter of im- portance to the basin's economy.