A handful of notes about Utah’s business scene …

Hotel Monaco in downtown Salt Lake City was named one of the world’s best business hotels in the annual Travel and Leisure magazine’s global survey. Among hotels in the United States and Canada, the Monaco notched a survey score of 87.00, the fourth highest and just behind the Four Seasons Hotels in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco and New York City’s Peninsula, and just ahead of Las Vegas’ Four Seasons.

The SLC hotel, one of 40 Kimpton properties, has received other honors in recent years, including: Gold List 2005, World’s Best Places to Stay; Conde Nast Traveler, The Heritage Award; 2000-2004 AAA, 4 Diamond Rating, and 2003-2004 Resorts and Great Hotels, Connoisseur’s Choice.

And …

Delta Airlines, which has a strong presence in Utah with its Salt Lake City hub, will give the city its first nonstop daily service to Paris. In fact, Delta is the only domestic carrier to provide nonstop service to the French capital from the western United States.

Service will begin June 2, 2008 on a Boeing 767, which can carry more than 200 passengers. The 10-hour flight will leave Salt Lake City at 5 p.m. and arrive in Paris the next day at 11:05 a.m. The return flight will depart Paris at 10:20 a.m. and arrive in Salt Lake City at 1:50 p.m.

Delta already serves more than 100 destinations in North America from Salt Lake City.

And …

A recent Associated Press story cited Utah as an example of the record tight labor market which has challenged employers to boost wages and try creative strategies in filling jobs across a wide range of industries.

Followers of basic state economic data will verify the article’s findings. Utah’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July was just 2.7 percent, well below the national average of 4.6 percent. In fact, the unemployment rate is three-tenths points lower than for the same time last year.

Job growth has been equally robust over the same annual period – 4.7 percent in Utah, compared to just 1.3 percent for the nation. Today, more than one and a quarter million residents are employed.

Money quote from the AP story:

“In Utah — where unemployment rates have been hovering around 2.5 percent — amusement parks, trucking companies, telemarketing firms and others have been paying bonuses of hundreds of dollars or more to find workers.

And workers have benefited. Utah workers saw a 5.4 percent average wage increase in 2006, Knold said.”

The article certainly confirmed what Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr., and other state officials have been saying for months: The most significant barrier to the state’s robust economy will be finding sufficient numbers of workers to sustain this unprecedented growth. Of course, that opens up a fresh round of the contentious debate concerning the shape of immigration reform.