LAYTON — Kent Sulser, Davis County manager of economic development, said that by the year 2030 the county's population is probably going to top out at about 440,000 people.

That, he said, is just another reason why the county needs to promote quality growth. "We know that in Davis County we are expecting great growth as is a lot of the state . . . and how we handle that growth is going to be significantly important," Sulser said.

Sulser, along with John Mathews, northern regional economist for the Department of Workforce Services, spoke on quality growth in Davis County as part of the Northern Utah Business and Economic Summit March 17 at the Weber State University-Davis Campus, 2750 N. University Park Blvd., Layton. A podcast of the summit is available at www.daviscable17.com.

The summit, which included various speeches, break-out sessions and rapid-fire sessions, was designed to get local business leaders together to discuss key issues facing Davis County's economy and businesses. Some of those issues include health care, energy, the jail expansion, transportation, education and growth.

Right now Davis County's population sits at 281,444 people. But many of those Davis County residents work outside county lines.

Sulser said overall job leakage from the county is about 20 percent. Twenty-eight thousand people leave Davis County to work in Salt Lake County and another 16,000 go to work in Weber County each day. "If we're going to focus on economic success, we need to have more employment here in the county," Sulser said.

Growth, Sulser said, needs to focus more on the manufacturing sector. For every 100 jobs created in manufacturing, 258 other jobs are created in service, restaurants, retail, etc., he added.

He said the key to the quality of growth in the county is to contain and preserve remaining land for job growth and job location places.

Mathews said Davis County's employment continues to grow. "The outlook for Davis County in terms of job growth and economy is still very positive," he said. "The latest look that we had on job growth was 3.8 percent for the year-over January to January and even though the state rate was a little higher, things are doing very well in Davis County."

According to the Department of Workforce Services, the 2005 preliminary average monthly wage for Davis County was $2,716 or $15.67 an hour. Utah's average is $2,735 a month or $15.78/hour.

Mathews said Davis County's unemployment rate is below the state average and people are able to find jobs.

"It actually is becoming kind of a sellers' market in terms of seekers because now the perception is among job seekers that the economy is doing well, that I can find a job without too much trouble and employers, on the other side, are showing some concern about not being able to find enough workers for this increased demand that growth has caused," he said.

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E-mail: nclemens@desnews.com