The Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) announced today that it received the Gold Shovel Award from Area Development.
“Last year, Utah received the Silver Shovel Award from Area Development, and we’re honored to receive the Gold Shovel Award for 2020,” said Val Hale, GOED’s executive director. “This has been a record year for our state where the economic development team helped create more than 13,000 high-paying jobs promised in a fiscal year.”
The annual Gold and Silver Shovel Awards recognize states for their achievements in attracting high-value investment projects that will create a significant number of new jobs in their communities. Information was gathered from all 50 states about their Top 10 job-creation and investment projects initiated in 2019.
Based on a combination of weighted factors — including the number of new jobs to be created in relation to the state’s population, the combined dollar amount of the investments, the number of new facilities, and the diversity of industry represented — six states achieving the highest weighted overall scores were awarded Area Development’s Gold Shovels in five population categories.
Utah received the Gold Shovel Award for the three-to-five million population category.
Learn more about Area Development’s Gold and Silver Shovel awards.