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The Idaho Tech Economy Woes

Oct 15th, 2008 by JJcutt

Just surf the Idaho Statesman’s website for a few minutes and you will realize very quickly that  Boise companies Micron and Hewlett-Packard are in some trouble.   Heck, Idaho is in some trouble.

Micron, one of Idaho’s largest employers, stated that they will be laying off 15% of their employees nation-wide, translating into 1500 Boise workers.  Gov. Butch Otter stated that “the global marketplace is driving this situation.” YA THINK?! But here’s the kicker… just days after dropping the bomb on all those Boise employees, Micron buys $400 million in stakes in a Taiwanese company.

This brings up the question, “What are we to do, on a state level, to keep jobs here in Idaho?” It is an incredible challenge to keep these companies in a place where tax burden and the inflated dollar makes it too expensive to do business in this country.

Hewlett Packard has yet to release any information on how many Idaho employees it will lay off but has said that they plan on a 8% Worldwide reduction.

These are scary times. Let’s do what we can as individuals on a community level to work our hardest… and vote for folks who care about sound economic policies.

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Posted in General News

Viewing 2 Comments

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    JJ,

    I thought Idaho had done a lot to be friendly to companies. Isn't that why Buck Knives moved here not too long ago. 1500 jobs is huge, especially for Boise. It would be interesting to see how Washington, Idaho and Oregon match up on taxes and the like. I had a booth across from the state of Montana at a catalog show a year or so ago. They were talking to all these merchants about relocating to their state and flashing tax breaks in front of them to get them there.
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    You know, everything that I have read shows that Boise has been doing well in regards to its competition (Spokane, Portland, Seattle). But I am going to guess that with the downturn in the economy, all these cities are going to take hits.

    In regards to keeping jobs in the US... the average American family needs a certain wage to be able to pay the bills. Overseas, especially in Asia, folks can work for practically nothing. I'm wondering if our inflated dollar is adding to this problem, too. But as a CEO of a large company, in most cases you see little allegiance to American made product. Companies are in it to make money.
 

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