For the first time in our five-year old study, states are de-emphasizing their cost of doing business—including taxes and utility rates—while placing more emphasis on quality of life and transportation/infrastructure. So we're adjusting our weightings and point system.
Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania can all make a good case for most-improved status, but, as usual, it depends on what metric you value the most.
Businesses in Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Vermont can rest easy knowing their workers enjoy the best quality of life. Not so for Delaware, Louisiana, and Alabama, which ranked last this year.
Ranking No. 1 for the 5th year running, California surpassed even its own 2010 performance. Yet, tech-savvy runners-up to the Silicon Valley state aren’t that far behind.
Three states made the top ten (Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska), while seven made the top 15 (add Kansas, Indiana, North and South Dakota). So much for the Sunbelt.
There’s growing impatience about subpar job creation as well as stubbornly high unemployment. Here are the ten biggest annual declines and the states in which they took place.