High-Tech Stages a Rebound

Utah's key industrial draw continues to be the software and high-tech sectors, though biotechnology is also central to the future of the state's economic prosperity. The year 2001 was a low point in the state's high-tech timeline, with 1,700 high-tech jobs lost and electronics exports falling 18 percent, according to AeA, a leading high-tech trade association. Venture capital dried up in Utah, too, from 2000 to 2001, falling 72 percent from $665 million to $188 million.
        Nevertheless, several high-tech players grew their presence in the state. San Jose, Calif.­based Cadence Design Systems announced in May that it would build a corporate resource facility in Sandy, Utah, that would employ 300 people in the next two to four years. The center will provide accounting, information technology, real estate, human resources, and procurement services for the North and South American operations of the maker of electronic design services.
        Siebel Systems, Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of e-Business applications, is expanding its presence in Utah with a new, 30,000-sq.-ft. (2,800-sq.-m.) enterprise data center in northwest Salt Lake City. The center will augment a relatively new IT Customer Care Center in Sandy, which provides technical assistance to Siebel Systems employees. Company executives identified the area's "educated, stable and committed work force" as a key driver of the location selection. The new facility will enable the company to grow its Utah employee base to approximately 600 by 2005.
        Utah has a significant rural population, and Gov. Mike Leavitt's 1,000 Day Economic Plan intends to ensure their economic well being, as well. He has identified health informatics as an industry tailor made for job development in rural Utah.
        Health informatics refers to medical coding, medical transcription and insurance auditing, all of which need workers. The work can be done from remote locations, and numerous medical information companies already are operating in the state. In August, the state had received a commitment from one medical coding company to provide up to 100 jobs in rural Utah once workers were trained.