Source: CVDaily Feed
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Utah has been named America’s top state for business by CNBC.
“With a sweet economy and an industrious workforce, the Beehive State is America’s Top State for Business,” says the report about Utah.
The business channel scored each state in the country on numerous criteria, using publicly-available data on more than 60 different measures of competitiveness.
In 2015 Utah ranked 3rd overall nationally and improved to #1 this year due to large gains in Workforce, Infrastructure, Education and Quality of Life, to name a few. The Utah workforce improved from 29th nationally last year to 12th this year while infrastructure improvements launched Utah from 30th in 2015 to 13th. Last year Utah Economy was #1 but in 2016 it remains high at #3 overall.
Utah did see some declines in other categories, including an 11 point drop in Cost of Living, a six point drop in Cost of Doing Business and a five point drop in Business Friendliness. Utah’s lowest score overall was Access to Capital, ranked 24th nationally.
The other states that rounded out the top 10 include Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina, Washington, Michigan, Georgia, Iowa and Florida. Idaho ranked 15th while Wyoming was tied for 13th.
Each state received points for each ranking by using metrics. The categories Workforce, Cost of Doing Business, Infrastructure, and Economy received the most points while Access to Capital, Cost of Living and Business Friendliness received the lowest points. The report says categories are weighted based on how frequently each is used as a selling point in state economic development marketing materials.
Data was used from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federation of Tax Administrators, American Petroleum Institute, Moody’s Investor Service, and S&P Global Market Intelligence.