The U.S. continues its slow slog out of the Great Recession of the late 2000s. The Gross National Product is up 2.2% on average the past five years after declining in 2008 and 2009. GNP fell 0.7% in the first quarter of 2015 due in part to a strong U.S. dollar and lousy weather. But there are pockets of the U.S. thriving thanks to attractive workforces and reasonable business costs.
Forbes crunched the numbers on the 401 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. to gauge the best and worst business climates. The result is our 17th annual list of the Best Places for Business and Careers.
Denver ranks No. 1 for the first time, moving up from a fourth place finish in 2014. The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro area, home to 2.8 million people, is attractive for its diverse economy, highly educated labor force and outdoor recreational opportunities. Companies are increasingly choosing Denver as the site for new operations or to relocate.
In addition to aerospace, Denver has a significant foothold in aviation, bioscience, energy, financial services, information technology, healthcare and telecommunications. The companies in these industries benefit from Denver and neighboring Boulder, which contain one of the most educated workforces in the country. Workers recognize Denver's allure with more than 100,000 out-of-state migrants moving to Denver between 2010 and 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It is the fifth biggest influx for any metro area.
There is one drawback to Denver's highly educated workforce. “Our ability to qualify for many relocation projects has gone down, and we are limited to competing for the top 3-4% of projects in terms of wages paid,” says Metro Denver Economic Development Corp CEO Tom Clark, who points to the fact that education and compensation go hand-in-hand. Denver needs to target high-wage projects like the Panasonic and Lockheed moves. But Denver is still a long way from New York and California when it comes to costs. Overall business costs are still 3% below the national average, according to Moody’s Analytics.
Raleigh, N.C., falls to second this year after ranking first in 2014. The Raleigh-Cary metro area is a steady performer, ranking in the top three of our Best Places list for more than a dozen years. Migration into the area has been the eighth fastest in the U.S. over the past five years as people gravitate to the area with large employers like corporate giants
Portland, Ore., ranks third, up 18 spots, thanks to a much improved economic and job outlook. The Portland economy is expected to boom over the next three years with an annual growth rate of 7.3%, second fastest in the U.S., according to Moody’s. Rounding out the top five are Provo, Utah, and Atlanta, Ga.
For this ranking we looked at the 200 largest metro areas by population in the U.S. (click here for a look at the Best Small Places for Business). We rated them on a dozen factors related to employment, costs (business and living), income growth, quality of life and the education of the labor force. Forbes used data from Moody’s Analytics, demographer Bert Sperling, who runs Sperling’s Best Places and the U.S. Census (click here for a more detailed methodology).
California landed three metro areas among the worst 10 places for business: Salinas (No. 193), Bakersfield (No. 197) and Visalia (No. 199). All three suffer from high business costs, slow income growth and extremely low levels of educational achievement (only 13% of Visalia adults have a college degree).
The bottom spot is reserved for Atlantic City for a third straight year. The fading New Jersey gambling and convention hub lost four of its 12 casinos last year. The closings caused AC to rank last for both one-year and five-year job growth. The outlook is not much brighter, with employment growth expected to run at an anemic 0.5% a year through 2017, third worst in the U.S. (see “Graphic: The 10 Best and Worst Cities for Job Growth”).
