Utah's economic expansion, now in its fourth decade, continued this year, fueled by a resurgent technology sector, an expansion of service operations by out-of-state companies, an increase in the defense sector and tourism, and continuing strength in non-residential construction.
While the state's unemployment rate seems "firmly stuck near 3 percent," and salary growth is well below the halcyon days of the mid-1990s, the 2.6-percent growth in incomes is still above the national average.
That's the view of John Mitchell, an economist for U.S. Bank in his annual assessment of Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp's Western region, which includes Utah, Idaho, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington.
While nearly all 50 states enjoyed income and job gains this year over last, the six states in the bank's Western region acquitted themselves well in 2000 with California, Nevada and Idaho in the top 10, Utah and Washington near the national average, and only Oregon lagging a bit behind.
"As 2000 unfolded, Utah's long economic expansion rolled on with annual job growth rates staying in the 2.3 percent to 2.7 percent range," said Mitchell in the bank's survey, titled "Territory 2001 Western Region," issued Tuesday.
Mitchell said he expects Utah to have employment gains of 2.4 percent in the coming year and personal income growth of 5.5 percent.
For the past two years, Utah's national parks, monuments and recreation areas have had an increase in visitors well above the national average, noted Mitchell, perhaps boosted by heightened global awareness of the state stemming from the upcoming Winter Olympics, now only 14 months away.
Recreation visits to those areas increased 3.6 percent and recreation visitor days 7.6 percent over the past two years as visitor counts increased at Arches, Capitol Reef and Zion National Parks, Rainbow Bridge National Monument, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
Hovenweep National Monument saw the biggest increase in visits last year, up 110.8 percent, while only Bryce Canyon National Park, down 7.3 percent, and Dinosaur National Monument, down 2.3 percent, saw declines from 1998. Figures are not yet available for this year.
Flying in the face of the Olympics publicity theory was the fact that the Utah ski industry had a drop in skier visits from 3.15 million to 2.9 million. But at least some of that decline can be laid to insufficient snow early in the 1999-2000 season.
The early and heavy snows of the current 2000-01 ski season should see the state's ski resorts make a big rebound from last year.
Federal defense jobs increased this year, noted Mitchell, as some additional activities were relocated to Hill Air Force Base and the Ogden Air Logistics Center.
Mitchell noted that more than 849,000 jobs — four-fifths of the wage and salary employment in the state — are located along the Wasatch Front, with manufacturing dominating Weber County, the federal government in Davis County, construction in Salt Lake County, and services/trade in Utah County.
E-mail: max@desnews.com