Saturday, February 23, 2008

Utah's Economy Shifting

Having lived in Utah and being a big Beehive state fan, I found the following NY Times article of interest, of course.

'The Rocky Mountain West, partly led downward by Utah, is expected to have the biggest percentage decline in construction jobs and housing starts this year, while the Southeast is likely to suffer least in total job growth. The Northeastern states, the company’s 2008 projections say, will take the biggest hit in total value of goods produced, called gross state product.

But some important old differences remain in Utah, too. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will spend more than $1.5 billion in Salt Lake City over the next few years on a complete renovation of several downtown blocks. That is going to happen no matter what, said Mark Knold, the senior economist for the Utah Department of Workforce Services. “The Mormon Church is recession-proof,” he said.

And so, it would seem, is Ari Bishop. Mr. Bishop, a 27-year-old sales executive, has ridden the wave of economic life. He went into real estate when Salt Lake City was exploding with growth. He bought and sold a house and had two children with his wife, Bene.

Now he sells training packages to people learning to work a new growth sector: foreclosures and bank-owned properties. It was boom times here before, Mr. Bishop said, and now boom times again, sort of.

“It’s a little different angle,” he said. “But we’re just going with the market.”'

But as most things, economy is fluid as well and I'm certain things will make a turn for the better.
Read more here.