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This is a follow-up on some of the results in the recent Milken Institute economic index. Each year their report highlights the ‘Best-Performing Cities” across the nation (by analyzing 400+ metropolitan areas). Today we’ll take a look at how the Salt Lake City, Utah metro fared in the economic indicators index.
Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the other top placers, or read the full report, here.
Salt Lake City, Utah Ranks Number 4
Economic Indicators
- Job Growth: Ranked 28th. +15.5% (2014-19)
- Job Growth: Ranked 11th. +3% (2018-19)
- Wage Growth: Ranked 18th. +36% (2014-19)
- Wage Growth: Ranked 19th. +7.1% (2018-19)
- Short-Term Job Growth: Ranked 19th. -2.1% (10/2019-10/2020)
- High-Tech GDP Growth: Ranked 16th. +51.6% (2014-19)
- High-Tech GDP Growth: Ranked 25th. +8.7% (2018-19)
- High-Tech GDP Concentration: Ranked 40th. LQ: 1.15 (2019)
- Number of High-Tech Industries: Ranked 15th. 10 (2019)
- Households with Broadband Access: Ranked 17th. 92% (2019)
- Households with affordable housing costs: Ranked 58th. 72.4% (2014-18)
- Households with affordable housing costs: Ranked 79th. 72.9% (2019)
Assets
- Very impressive employment and wage growth
- Wide variety of middle-income opportunities and high-tech industries
Liabilities
- Competition with neighboring counties for talent/investment
Perhaps one of the most well-rounded economic metros in the Nation, Salt Lake City, Utah has earned the fourth place spot among the Nation’s “Best-Performing Cities”. Salt Lake County has a population of over 1.1 million and has continued to show a strong trajectory of population and job growth.
The city had 3% growth between 2018 and 2019 before the pandemic, which ranked 11th among other tier 1 metros. “Most notably, SLC is home to a regional tech, finance, and professional services hub. As a result of the thriving tech sector, wage growth has been particularly strong in the region, and high-tech GDP has continued to grow.” (Milken Report)
Top 13 “Best Performing Metros” 2021
