The steady shift of businesses to the energy-abundant Northern Plains of the USA has witnessed a reversal as Georgia secures top rank in CNBC’s 2014 America’s Top States for Business rankings.
Georgia has always been ranked amongst the top ten since 2007, which was the first year CNBC ranked states in the USA on the basis of their competitiveness. Ranked fourth in 2007 and 2011, Georgia slid to eighth in 2013 becoming topping the table in 2014.
The states were assessed on the basis of the following categories:
- Cost of Doing Business (450 points)
- Economy (375 points)
- Infrastructure (350 points)
- Workforce (300 points)
- Quality of Life (300 points)
- Technology & Innovation (300 points)
- Business Friendliness (200 points)
- Education (150 points)
- Cost of Living (50 points)
- Access to Capital (25 points)
Cost of Doing Business had the highest weightage with 450 points while Economy, Infrastructure, Workforce, Quality of Life, and Technology and Innovation were assigned 300-375 points. Business Friendliness and Educated were allotted 200 and 150 points respectively while Cost of Living and Access to Capital had a weightage of 50 and 25 points each.
Out of a maximum of 2500 points, the state scored 1659 points and finished in the top half of eight out of ten categories of competitiveness. High availability of educated nonunion worker seems to be Georgia’s biggest strength. The state has been ranked at the top in the Workforce category for the past three consecutive years.
Improved potential in job growth data and scope for rapid revival of the housing market led to Georgia being ranked third best in the country in the Economy category. The port of Savannah in Georgia did record business last year while Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been ranked as the world’s busiest airport for the past 16 consecutive years. This contributed to Georgia finishing close to the top in the Infrastructure category as well.
The state performed poorly in Quality of Life and Education, where it is ranked 32nd in the country.
Ranked second in the rankings was the state of Texas. Since 2007, Texas has never been ranked below the second spot. It was top ranked in 2008, 2010, and 2012, and has been ranked second in all other years including 2014. This year, Texas scored 1641 points, its best performance in the rankings till date.
Addition of more than 300,000 jobs in the previous year, a diverse range of industries in the state, and a solid credit rating has helped Texas score very high in the Economy category. It is ranked in the top two in Infrastructure, Technology & Innovation, and is fifth best state as far as Access to Capital is concerned.
Utah is ranked third while North Carolina is ranked fifth. Ranked fourth, Nebraska is the only northern state in the top five.
States that fell in the rankings include North Dakota, which is beginning to suffer from its excessive dependence on the oil boom. South Dakota, the best ranked state last year, fell steeply to the eleventh rank. Another state that recorded a steel decline, the worst amongst all states, was Montana. It fell from 18th in 2013 to 33rd in 2014.
The state that showed the best improvement was Nevada, which jumped from 47th in 2013 to 29th this year. However, it continues to languish in the bottom half of the list despite steady job growth and revival of the housing market.
Source: www.cnbc.com