Utah poised for recovery of economy

LEHI — The Beehive State could be well-positioned for a sustained economic recovery once the nationwide recession subsides, according to a national analyst.

"Utah may actually be better positioned because of its diversity and the kinds of industries it specializes in than much of the rest of the U.S. economy," IBM chief economist Philip Swan said Wednesday during an event at Thanksgiving Point hosted by the Utah Technology Council.

Swan warned that while Utah may still be struggling, better days could be ahead if state leaders focus their attention at strengthening Utah's core industries, including health care, technology and biomedical.

"Those are industries that are going to thrive and haven't been hit as badly," he told the Deseret News. He added that maintaining strength in those sectors would eventually have a positive impact on struggling economic areas such as housing.

Swan said that building a strong educational system would be a key component in helping the state pull itself out of the recession and to foster and maintain growth in the long term.

Having a less-burdensome state tax system would be another way to create an environment for growth, he noted.

"The idea is, if you tax less, then there is more money for the rest of the economy to play with and so you're more likely to get better results that way," Swan said. "But you still need a very viable educational system."

While having a quality higher education system is important, ensuring kids are well prepared in grade school is probably even more important to developing a strong pool of potential candidates to send into the future work force, he said.

"Getting them K through 12 … with reasonably basic skills and some kind of excitement about going on and doing things of a creative nature, that is really the great challenge," Swan said.

Besides education, he said creating an environment that is conducive to enjoying a high quality of everyday life is also an important factor in building a strong economic foundation.

Swan said that Utah should continue to work to retain its high school and college graduates rather than have them look for greener pastures elsewhere. That could be accomplished by generating good jobs for its home-grown population as well as luring more new residents.

"In some states, that's a big issue," he said. "If you're creating jobs, people will stay. And if you're creating jobs that people will want and use the talents and skills they develop, then they are going to stay."

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