One of those competitors recently received a big boost from Forbes magazine. For the third year in a row, Forbes ranked Utah the Best State for Business.
Utah won high praise from Forbes, which wrote, “No state can match the consistent performance of Utah. It is the only state that ranks among the top 15 states in each of the six main categories on which states are rated.”
Boeing is opening a third plant in Utah to fabricate tail-section parts for the 787. The Salt Lake City plant will employ 100 people making an average of $65,000 a year. That brings Boeing’s Utah workforce to roughly 700.
Utah’s rise to economic prominence didn’t happen overnight. It has been a consistent long-term strategy initiated in 2004 by then-Gov. Jon Huntsman and Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert.
Today, aerospace and aviation companies in Utah employ more than 10,000 people who provide engineering, logistics support and maintenance for several U.S. Air Force jet fighter and cargo aircraft programs, as well as the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.
Janicki Industries, a family-owned, cutting-edge composite manufacturer headquartered in Sedro-Woolley, also located a $20 million aerospace plant in Utah to support the company’s work on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Janicki is exactly the type of aerospace company Utah targets to recruit because its high-tech precision molds are the future of aerospace.
Among the other pluses for Utah: energy costs that are 29 percent below the national average. KPBusiness Journal
