Utah has a rich and robust high tech environment fueled by a strong entrepreneurial spirit and highly educated industry hubs. Utah, the Beehive State, has much to offer both in the way of industry and lifestyle. For example, Inc.com’s ratings for best cities for business growth in 2008 listed Salt Lake City #3 for large metro areas, Prove # 1 and #8 for mid-sized cities, and St. George #1 for small cities.
Forbes.com also gave high ratings to Provo, Ogden, and Salt Lake City, Utah in related categories. Salt Lake City was listed as the No. 1 U.S. city for jobs in 2008; as Forbes.com states “in all its tech-job abundance.” Provo and Ogden were listed among the top 25 cities in the U.S. in 2008 for business and careers.
In fact, Utah’s 4,256 high-tech companies recently had a combined payroll of 3.6 Billion dollars. And CNBC.com ranked Utah as number 3 in America’s top states for business in 2008.
Not only is it advantageous to do business in Utah, but Utah offers an unbeatable lifestyle in a family friendly outdoor recreational paradise. Utah has numerous national parks and its outdoor recreation and natural wonders are unmatched. For example, Provo-Orem was listed among National Geographic’s Where To Live And Play top cultural hubs. St. George was list by National Geographic among the top Wilderness Towns. Farmington and Draper were among the top 25 places to live according to CNNMoney.com. Provo-Orem was also listed by MSN.com as the No. 2 place in the U.S. to “start over”. Kiplinger also named Provo as one of the Top 25 Best Cities in which to live and has named St. George, Logan, Provo, and Ogden amongst the Top 50 smart places to live.
High Tech companies of interest that were founded and/or are headquartered in Utah.
- Pixar – Founded by University of Utah Grad
- Omniture – Headquartered in Utah (and recent bought by Adobe)
- Wordperfect – Founded and Headquartered in Utah
- Novell – Founded and Headquartered in Utah
- IMFlash – Micron and Intel Joint Venture in Utah
- IOMega – Founded and Headquartered in Utah
- Atari – Founded by University of Utah Grads
Comparatively speaking, Utah has traditionally experienced great employment rates well above the national rates. From numbers put out by the Utah Governor’s Office of Planning & Budget, the unemployment rate for the State of Utah in 2007 was only 2.7% while the national unemployment rate that year was 4.6%. While unemployment rates have increased across the board due to the recent economic difficulties, Utah still fares better than the United States as a whole. The estimated unemployment rate for Utah in 2010 will be 5.1%, a decrease from the 2009 rate of 5.5%. However, the United States is expected to have 8.2% unemployment in 2010, an increase from 7.7% from the current year.
As of 2008, the population of the State of Utah was approximately 2.8 million with almost 2.1 million (about 75%) living in Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, and Weber Counties combined along the Wasatch Front. Population growth trends and estimates show that the State population will nearly double in about forty (40) years.
Completion of the world’s first transcontinental railroad was celebrated at Promontory in northern Utah where the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads met on May 10, 1869. It is now known as Golden Spike National Historic Site.
Utah is the site of the nation’s first department store, Zions Co-operative Mercantile Institution, which was established in the late 1800’s.
Utah contains the largest natural-rock span in the world. Rainbow Bridge, carved by nature of solid sandstone, spans 278 feet and is 309 feet high and is one of seven national monuments in Utah. The other six are Cedar Breaks, Natural Bridges, Dinosaur, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Timpanogos Cave and Hovenweep. Utah has many other items of interest. It has five national parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef. There are two national recreation areas in Utah: Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon. And Utah has six national forests: Ashley, Dixie, Fishlake, Manti-LaSal, Uinta, and Wasatch-Cache.
For more information about Utah and what makes this State such a great place, please see http://www.utah.gov/about/.