Fertile valley: Utah County firms surging
despite labor shortage
By Josh Loftin
Deseret Morning News
Aug. 24, 2007
It sure look's like Utah Valley could use a few more
computer geeks and Internet junkies.
The rapid expansion of the state's economy, especially in
Utah County, has created an unexpected labor shortage,
especially in the technological field. It has not, however,
slowed the growth of many homegrown companies. |
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In fact, the state has nine companies listed
in the Inc. Magazine 500, which recognizes the
nation's fastest-growing companies. The rankings
will be published in the September issue of the
magazine.
Six of those companies are Utah Valley-based,
including two - Heritage Web Solutions and Doba
- who have over 3,000 percent growth since 2003
and are among the 25 fastest-growing companies.
Because of that growth, however, employers are
struggling to find employees for skilled
positions, especially with computer programming
and Web design. Steve Densley, president of the
Provo/Orem Area Chamber of Commerce, said that
he is hearing more and more from companies
trying to fill positions and discovering that
the best they can do is recruit from other
companies.
"The job market is tight," he said. "That rapid
of growth for any one company is great, because
companies are really beating each other up to
hire good employees."
Still, it did not surprise Densley that the
county had a half-dozen companies ranked in
annual Inc. report.
"There's quite an entrepreneurial spirit here,
especially with the upwardly mobile college
graduates," he said.
Brad Stone, chief executive officer of Heritage
Web Designs, said that good employees were so
difficult to find that they had to start
contracting jobs to telecommuting programmers
last year. The problem is not talent, but
numbers, even with the graduates from the
valley's two universities.
Heritage, which Stone started with three other
partners in Salt Lake City in 2002, was 22nd on
the list. It is an "all-in-one" Web services
company, offering Web site design, marketing,
programming and hosting to primarily small and
medium businesses.
In some ways, Utah County is starting to become
a technological hub that resembles the days when
companies like WordPerfect, Novell and Micron
were employing thousands of people.
"The Utah County tech market has been hot and
cold," Stone said. "But there is a resurgence of
the tech industry down here."
Despite the rapid growth, Stone said there are
currently no plans to take the company public or
merge with a bigger company. Instead, they are
looking at one of the computer giants for their
business model.
"We'll probably continue to grow as a private
company, much as Google did, until our hand is
forced and we need to go public," he said.
Along with the nine companies on the Inc. 500 -
all of which posted more than 600 percent gains
since 2003 - 71 Utah companies are listed on the
Inc. 5,000. Both lists are based on growth
between 2003 and 2006, and are ranked according
to percentage of revenue growth.
Two neighboring states, Arizona and Colorado,
had nearly twice as many companies on the Inc.
500 and Inc. 5,000, but neither of them had any
companies in the top 25. Idaho and Nevada had
fewer companies than Utah on the lists and none
in the top 25. |
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