SOFTWARE AND IT

Industry on the Rise in Silicon Slopes

by FRANK REDDY

The tech industry is booming in Utah. In a word, it’s “massive,” according to Chanel Flores, IT and software cluster director with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

In fact, one in seven jobs in Utah has an IT or tech component, Flores said. She added that the state’s growth in the industry exceeds the national average by four percent.

According to a February 2019 Industry Snapshot of Utah’s tech industry — researched by The University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute — total economic impacts during 2017 exceeded 302,000 jobs at companies that paid $20.1 billion in earnings, generating $29.9 billion in GDP.

In addition, in-state spending by tech companies and workers supported nearly 186,000 Utah jobs outside the tech industry.

Flores said this overlap is an important aspect of the IT and software industry.

“Because we have such a strong presence within this industry, you’re seeing it touch or trickle into every other industry,” Flores said. “Even in the last year, we’ve seen huge Silicon Slopes momentum, and we’re seeing an upward tick in particular in how many engineers people are hiring as well as computer scientists and software engineers.”

According to Utah’s Tech Sector industry profile — in addition to being known as Silicon Slopes — it ranks second in the nation in fastest-growing states for tech jobs, with an increase of 6.8% in 2016.

Utah is home to companies such as Adobe, Ancestry, Domo, IM Flash Technologies, Qualtrics and many more, boasting an employee base of more than 60,000.

“It’s such an entrepreneurship-strong environment we have created, and we have so many different companies that are actually out of Utah,” Flores said. Many of those companies have had big expansions over the past couple years.

For one, in 2018, Centrify announced an expansion and growth of its engineering team in the state — adding up to 200 jobs, $2.7 million in new state revenue and an estimated $4.5 million in capital investment.

In June 2017, Facebook made public its plans to build a one million-square-foot data center in Eagle Mountain, bringing $750 million in capital investment. The same year, Snapchat chose Utah for a future expansion; AvidXchange expanded its Utah operations; Pluralsight did the same, adding about 2,400 jobs; and, Adobe announced it would also expand, adding 1,260 jobs in Lehi.

“Not even 10 years ago, if you were to drive through Lehi, you’d see maybe one or two buildings there, but now it’s become almost like downtown Salt Lake City, with massive buildings everywhere,” Flores said, adding that, “it’s been amazing seeing this kind of growth, across all industries, but this momentum in the IT space has been truly incredible.”