Lehi Business
Utah Tech jobs growing twice as fast as other states
Jobs in the Utah tech sector are growing twice as fast as the rest of the country, and most of that growth is in Utah County according to a report presented at the Utah Economic Summit
Utah has been named the state with the most robust job growth between August 2017 to August 2018, according to a report by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute that was presented at the Utah Economic Summit recently. That growth can be attributed in large part to Utah County, as without Utah County’s numbers in that calculation, Utah would only be in fifth place nationally.
The
population of Utah has increased by 263,178 people in the last five years.
“We’ve added a population the size of Weber County in five years,” said Natalie
Gochnour, director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Population growth is
often a sign of economic strength, and the state of Utah is the fastest-growing
economy by job growth in the nation. The Point of the Mountain and the Lehi
area are quickly becoming the “uptown” to Salt Lake City’s “downtown,” she said. “Population, power,
political power, economic power, are all shifting south in the state.”
Podium breaks ground on new headquarters in Lehi
Tech sector growth can be witnessed by anyone driving in Lehi along the freeway seeing the rate office buildings are going up. Companies like Podium, which started five years ago in a Provo apartment by CEO Eric Rea, moved into a brand new 150,000 square-foot building in Lehi just nine months ago. They have already outgrown it. A few days ago, they broke ground on a new $20 million building which will become their new headquarters. “Today we broke ground for our second building at Podium HQ. Over the past four years, we’ve gone from five to over 500 employees, and with this expansion, our campus will have room for 1,600 employees,” according to Podium’s social media platform.
Podium innovated a cloud-based platform which helps businesses make customer interactions fast and easy. Their products help offline business attract, communicate with and retain customers through the careful management of their online presences and messaging tools. Podium was also listed by Inc. Magazine as one of the best workplaces in 2018 and 2019.
“Local businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and our communities. This new building will allow us to continue to scale and grow to help fill in the communication gap between those businesses and their customers,” said Rea.
Other issues addressed at the Economic Summit included housing, the fusion of technology and artificial intelligence (like automated cars), quality of life, and the growing pains of fast growth. For a full report of the economic summit see the website: https://gardner.utah.edu
