Forbes’ Best Places for Business and Careers
Forbes’ Best Places for Business and Careers
Forbes just released another ranking, The Best Places for Business and Careers. New Orleans rated very poorly, coming in at #190 out of 200 large metro areas. While a low ranking is cause for concern in the economic development community, many seem to disagree with the assessment. New Orleans has become a hub of entrepreneurial activity. Educated, engaged young professionals are drawn to the city by the desire to make a difference.
How was this list derived? As Forbes explains, “we ranked areas on 12 metrics including costs (business and living), job growth (past and projected), income growth, educational attainment and projected economic growth. We also factored in quality-of-life issues like crime, cultural and recreational opportunities as well as net migration patterns. Lastly we examined the percentage of subprime mortgages handed out over a three-year stretch and the number of highly ranked four-year colleges in the area, per our annual college rankings.” While the exact methodology is not explained, metro rankings are presented on each of three scales, cost of doing business, job growth, and educational attainment.
New Orleans didn’t rate too poorly on the Cost of Doing Business, an index based on the cost of labor, energy, taxes, and office space. According to Sperling’s Best Places, our overall cost of living index (which covers overlapping variables) is 91, or 9% lower than the national average.
We ranked much lower, 137th, on Projected Job Growth, based on 3 year annualized figures. It is not possible to examine the data, which is attributed to Moody’s Economy.com, a proprietary source. This ranking seems a bit curious, given that New Orleans is perceived to be riding out the recession better than most places, largely due to post hurricane spending.
Lower still is Educational Attainment, defined as the share of the population over 25 with a bachelor’s degree or higher. We ranked 147th. There is no arguing with the stats here – only 23.5% of our adult population has a college degree compared to 27.7% nationwide.
As for the other variables, crime likely cancelled out any plusses derived from our culture, in-migration, or dearth of subprime lending. We had 3 universities listed in Forbes’ top 600 – Tulane (168th), Loyola (280th) and Dillard (494th).
Let’s keep promoting the non-statistical stories that highlight our positive trends!
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