Utah Recognized as Best State for Business—Third Consecutive Year

It seems like just yesterday that I talked about Utah being named the best place to do business by Forbes. Here we are again to celebrate Utah receiving this honor for the third year in a row! Since Fishbowl is headquartered in this state and doesn’t have any plans for moving, this reflects well on our company’s future.

How Utah Won

A Forbes article breaks down the factors that gave Utah an advantage over every other state:

• Utah’s population has the youngest average age in the country at just 29
• A third of the state’s workers are fluent in at least two languages
• Utah’s international trade continues to rise each year
• Adobe, eBay, Goldman Sachs, Oracle, and Procter & Gamble have all moved some of their operations to Utah
• The state’s regulations and legal structure are the third best in the country for business
• Energy costs are much lower than the national average
  

The Rise of Manufacturing

An important trend that the Forbes article doesn’t mention is Utah’s increasingly diverse manufacturing industry. I found some interesting statistics about this in another article, entitled “Utah Manufacturing Goes into Orbit.” Here they are:

“Utah’s manufacturing sector is the third largest employment sector in Utah, comprising about 9.6 percent of Utah’s workers, totaling more than 114,700 people. Workers in this sector also receive wages that are 22 percent higher than the average monthly wage in Utah.”

Manufacturing is in the top three of all the industries in Utah, in terms of employment? That is incredible to me. The article I included above notes that a manufacturer that had moved some of its operations to China recently made the strategic decision to move its staff back to Utah. This is happening with manufacturing jobs in many other states, not just in the ones traditionally known for their manufacturing, such as Michigan.

I hope you enjoyed hearing this good news. It’s nice to go into the new year on a positive note.