Despite a rocky national economy, five states are forging ahead quite successfully for the business sector. This year, the best state for business is Texas and for the fourth year in a row, the worst ranked state is Alaska.
The most improved state in 2010 is Pennsylvania which moved from the 33rd spot to the 20th, ranking highly for economy despite a poor unemployment rate.
With scoring based on the cost of doing business, workforce, quality of life, economy, transportation & infrastructure, technology & innovation, education, business friendliness, access to capital and cost of living, Texas ranks highly in most categories. Texas has been in the top five for the past several years (since the study began) and continues to rank highly for the cost of doing business and the cost of living, even inside of its largest metropolitan areas.
It is interesting to see the rise and fall of several states with a few standouts like Texas and Virginia that seem to always be on the list for being business friendly. The flow of business is impacted for real estate professionals as these rankings change because as corporations look to relocate to a more cost effective location or small businesses look to grow, an environment that is business friendly is wildly important to retaining or attracting people in mass.
With Texas taking such a continued stronghold in these rankings, would you look to these numbers as a political indicator or predictor? With rumors of Texas Governor Rick Perry (former Lt. Governor to George W. Bush) considering a run for the U.S. Presidency, these rankings can’t hurt, but for Sarah Palin, they don’t look great as Alaska is notoriously unfriendly to business, ranking last in almost all categories year over year despite her efforts as Governor.
Click here for the full 2010 list.
Joe Loomer
July 14, 2010 at 7:14 am
I’m not sure I like the way they weighted stuff. If South Carolina is #6 in cost of business, and #5 in workforce quality, how do they end up down at #31? I would think the cost of doing business and quality and availability of the workforce would be weighted very much higher than other factors. South Carolina was also ranked #8 for transportation.
Navy Chief, Navy Pride