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What's going right in Utah?
"What's going RIGHT in Utah?"
What's Going Right In Utah?" KSL's weeklong look at the good things happening in our economy, jobs and the marketplace.
The old saying about Utah is that we're a couple of years behind the rest of the country when it comes to trends. And that may actually be true when it comes to Utah's economy. While the rest of the country has been suffering through an economic downturn the last year, Utah continues to grow. Economist Austin Sargent with the Department of Workforce Services says there's a good reason why.
He says, "It's largely our demographic makeup is so much different than every other state. We have a much younger population. We've had much more household formation, and that's what was benefiting our housing market."
And along with keeping the housing market stable, Utah's job market has been very strong. With an unemployment rate well belong the national average, there has been virtually full employment in Utah. Sargent says job growth has been very strong. "Over about a 45 year period we average about 3 percent, and we've just dipped below that now. But for the last three years we've been well above that and it was a very healthy market since we came out of the last recession," Sargent says.
He says the Utah economy isn't bulletproof. We'll see some declines as the national economy slows even further. But he thinks we'll do a lot better than the rest of the country.
Sargent says, "We anticipate our job market will continue to be one of the better ones in the nation. We won't know if we're in a real recession until after it's happened because of the way the data is measured. But even if we're not, we're going to be very, very slow growing, and we think Utah will exceed the nation's growth."
Sargent predicts the fundamentals of Utah's economy will continue to be healthy.
Utah saw phenomenal economic growth in the past couple of years. In fact, we led the nation in many categories in 2007. Experts on the economy say we will see a slowdown in Utah in 2008 and 2009, but not as bad as the rest of the country. One big reason for that is major development in downtown Salt Lake City.
Natalie Gochner is the CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. She says, "What you see in downtown Salt Lake is about 55 projects that are either almost started or will be started very soon. So City Creek Center is one of many, and you get a lot of boost from the money that's spent to pay for the supplies and the workers wages that are working on it."
She says projects like the City Creek Center will pump $3 billion into the local economy over the next five years. And projects like the new high rise at 222 S. Main St. are bringing in "new" money. She says, "Private investors from out of state who are investing in our economy. So you get a real bump out of the higher wages, the supplies that are purchased, the investment locally."
That will help sustain Utah's economy through the next few lean years. And Gochner says in some ways, we will benefit from the national downturn.
"The other thing you see is lower interest rates, which is happening nationally as the fed is adjusting to what looks like a darkening U.S. economy. So Utah's in this fortunate situation where we're not as bad as the rest of the country, but our national leaders are making decisions that make our economy stronger."
Gochner says even though some economic sectors in Utah will feel more pain than others in the next two years, we'll get through it in much better shape than other parts of the country.
Salt Lake's City Creek construction and the rest of the Downtown Rising projects will help get Utah over the hump, as the national economy hits the skids. It's also sparked an interest in people who live downtown. Bill Knowles is the ombudsman for Downtown Rising.
"Sitting in this office the last couple of months, that's where most of the interest and a lot of the questions have come from, is people looking at these residential developments. Definitely there's a lot of interest."
In the last 10 years there's been a sharp increase in the number of condos in and around the downtown Salt Lake area, complementing the already existing American Towers. And Bob Farrington with the Downtown Alliance says retail sales downtown are at an all-time high. Despite the construction, people are coming downtown.
"Restaurants and entertainment, dining, night life has taken a big bump up. So that's been a big economic driver."
And Farrington believes with all the projects that are in the works, the timing couldn't be better.
"I think the anticipation would be if we have a slowdown in our economy now, by the time these projects come online I think they'll be hitting it right at the sweet spot, when our whole national economy is recovering."
Knowles and Farrington also say that as the city develops an arts and cultural center on the blocks south of City Creek, it will be even more attractive not only to people, but businesses as well.
Tomorrow we take a look at population growth in the state.
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1. "Wells Fargo Building" 24-stories 422 FT 1998
2. "LDS Church Office Building" 28-stories 420 FT 1973
3. "111 South Main" 24-stories 387 FT 2016
4. "99 West" 30-stories 375 FT 2011
5. "Key Bank Tower" 27-stories 351 FT 1976
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could you imagine the fun we could have with one of those
Very cool Projects, good idea to post those!! 
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