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Show Utah's economy is on the upswing By TOM HARALDSEN According to a report from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Administra-tion, '.Utah's economy, in general, and small business in particular, are moving in a positive directions The report was prepared in November and released this week. It covers a period from July 1986 to July 1987. Though state unemployment unemploy-ment and income growth showed negative movement during that time, the report says business formation for-mation and proprietorship income were on the rise, and small firms were receiving increased amounts of federal contract dollars. Proprietorship income, that of small businesses, rose from $1,346 billion in the 1986 period to $1,474 billion during the same period in 1987. The 9.5 percent increase was still below the national increase of 12.9 percent, however. New business formation was up in Utah, contrasting the slow national na-tional trend. New business starts rose from 859 during the first six months of 1986 to 962 in the first six months of 1987. While national new starts decreased 8.1 percent, they increased in Utah by over 1 1 percent. Business failures and dissolutions dissolu-tions were also lower in Utah, with bankruptcies declining 5.6 percent during a period when the national CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE Economy on upswing Continued from previous pg. totals increased 6.9 percent. Business Busi-ness failures were up 3.0 percent in Utah, compared to a 6.6 percent hike nationally during the period. Federal contracts awarded to Utah businesses totalled $1 .238 billion bil-lion in fiscal 1986. Small businesses received $298 million, an increase of 37.3 percent over the previous fiscal year. Small businesses accounted for 24.1 percent of the awards made in Utah and 19.4 percent per-cent of the awards made nationally in fiscal 1986, the report said. Firms with fewer than 500 employees, em-ployees, categorized as small businesses, generated one third of the 50,300 new jobs created in Utah between 1980 and 1984, according to the Small Business Data Base. The Department of Commerce also reported that Utah had the 34th largest women-owned business population and the 38th largest minority-owned business population popula-tion in the country in 1982. Of the 33,540 businesses established estab-lished in Utah a year ago, the re port said 29,872, or 89.1 percent, were small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. |