According to the Deseret News, following the announcement of two major expansion projects, Utah’s economy will receive more than 700 new jobs from the technology sector over the next four years.
The board of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) approved $49.5 million in post-performance tax incentives for IM Flash Technologies and EMC Corp., Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said.
Under the first incentive plan, Lehi-based IM Flash—a joint venture between Intel Corp. and Micron Technology and a leader in flash memory technology—plans to add 200 jobs starting in 2012. It also will maintain its current staff levels of more than 1,400 employees as it expands its semiconductor fabrication facility. The company expects to pay about $1.4 billion in new state wages over the next decade as well as invest $1.5 billion in capital as it implements its growth strategy.
“Our plans are to continue our investments as we move forward and also expand—not only in Utah, but around the globe,” said Keyvan Esfarjani, co-executive officer of IM Flash. He added that most of the new jobs will be engineering and technical support.
The second incentive would offer EMC Corp. up to $3.5 million as it adds 500 new positions in Utah by the end of 2015. The jobs would pay 125 percent of the average county wage.
With 48,500 employees worldwide and headquartered in Hopkinton, Mass., EMC Corp. is a provider of storage hardware solutions that promote data recovery and improve cloud computing.
Vance Checketts, vice president of support services for EMC Corp., said the company would hire about 70 to 100 people by year’s end, with more hires over the next few years.
The latest announcements are a strong indicator that the state’s long-range growth plan is heading in the right direction, according to Jeff Edwards, president and chief executive officer of Economic Development Corp. of Utah.
“The information technology sector here will be greatly enhanced by EMC’s long-term presence, which will bring further economic success in Utah,” Edwards said.
