Business Facilities magazine has released the results of its 10th Annual Rankings Report, naming Louisiana as the state with the Best Business Climate.
Louisiana surged into the top slot in BF‘s annual state business climate assessment from last year’s fourth-place finish. Utah, Texas, Tennessee and Indiana rounded out the top five, respectively, in this year’s Best Business Climate ranking.
“Louisiana has been a perennial contender for our coveted Best Business Climate designation, but this year the Bayou State made it easy for us to give them the No. 1 ranking,” BF Editor in Chief Jack Rogers said.
“When we scrutinized all of the essential elements for a successful economic development program in today’s highly competitive market—including workforce training, incentives, a business-friendly tax and regulatory structure, and a highly diverse, well-conceived growth strategy—we consistently found an aggressive standard for excellence in Louisiana,” Rogers added.
Rogers said BF continues to be impressed with the unprecedented cooperation between higher education resources and business in Louisiana. He also noted that Louisiana FastStart repeated as the top-ranked state program in BF‘s Workforce Training Leaders category.
Tennessee made the biggest gain in this year’s Best Business Climate ranking, moving up to No. 4 from last year’s ninth-place showing. Indiana advanced to No. 5 from its sixth place ranking in the 2013. “Tennessee and Indiana are rising stars, and they show no signs of abandoning their upward mobility in this flagship category,” Rogers said.
With mega-incentives for big-ticket projects and low business taxes, Utah, BF’s No. 2 state for Best Business Climate, has succeeded in convincing tech giants including Adobe and eBay to put major operations in the Beehive State.
Our flagship Best Business Climate ranking evaluates an amalgamation of our key rankings results (including education, workforce training/availability, cost of labor, infrastructure, utility costs, credit rating and business tax climate). We give extra credit to states that have enacted and executed business-friendly policies, including new incentives, an improved business tax climate, workforce training and a relatively low cost of labor. We also factor in the recent success of economic development initiatives geared to bring in new industry segments and facilities.
Here are the top 10 states for Best Business Climate:
BUSINESS FACILITIES 2014 STATE RANKINGS:
- LOUISIANA
- UTAH
- TEXAS
- TENNESSEE
- INDIANA
- FLORIDA
- GEORGIA
- SOUTH CAROLINA
- NEBRASKA
- ALABAMA
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