Raleigh-Cary Ranks Great as Best Performing!

Raleigh-Cary climbs, Durham falls and Fayetteville surges in the latest Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities Index.

While lists of “best places” to live and work are increasing in number faster than anyone can truly track, the Milken study is a true headliner. The California-based think tank relies heavily on high-tech industry data in formulating its index, insisting that technology is the crucial ingredient for future growth.

So, Raleigh-Cary’s jump to seventh from 10th place certainly is encouraging for business and community leaders, especially since high tech is stressed so heavily in the Triangle and areas nearby. Plus, Milken gives a boost to locals after a Portfolio.com report earlier this week dropped the capital area metro to near the bottom of the top 100 metros in a survey of income growth.
Durham, unfortunately, slipped from its lofty perch of sixth in 2009 to 15th in the new report.
Fayetteville, meanwhile, rose sharply to 18th from 31st thanks in large part to the growing military presence at Fort Bragg and a related growth in the city’s surging high-tech industry.
“Researchers found that metros whose economies are heavy on service industries such as health care and on large government employers like military bases have been shielded from the job losses suffered by cities more closely tied to the housing and financial sectors,” the Institute noted.

The “Best Performing” index is based on a compilation of five-year and one-year data for factors such as employment, salary growth, and what the Institute calls “technology output growth” spread across four specific categories.

So what are the lessons to be learned from the Index?
“The Great Recession has taken a toll on many cities,” said Ross DeVol, executive director of economic research at the Milken Institute, in summarizing the report’s results. “But those that are sustaining their job markets are doing so through a good mix of high-tech industries, favorable business climates and diversified service-sector industries. These are definite lessons for how American metros can be prepared to survive economic turmoil.”

Read the Raleigh-Cary numbers here.
Read the Durham numbers here.

NC Ranks High on Forbes List!

North Carolina is the third best state in the country for business and careers, Forbes magazine says in a new report.

The Tar Heel state climbed two spots in the rankings from a year ago.

Forbes listed North Carolina as:
No. 3 in business costs
No. 15 in labor supply
No. 3 for regulatory climate
No. 18 for economic climate
No. 9 for growth prospects
No. 32 for quality of life

“This shows that the hard work of the past year has paid off – our investments in education to build the workforce of tomorrow, policies that create a more business-friendly climate and our aggressive recruiting,” said Gov. Bev Perdue in a statement. “When I took office, I pledged to take any meeting and make any call to bring jobs to this state. There’s nothing I love more than convincing a corporate executive of what a great place this is to live and work.”
Perdue also noted that North Carolina ranks third in reducing its unemployment rate (to 9.7 percent) while ranking fourth in job creation.

Utah is the new No. 1, toppling Virginia.
Georgia ranks eighth, falling two places from a year ago.
South Carolina, meanwhile, dropped nine spots to 34th.
Rankings are based on Forbes’ analysis of 33 criteria within six broad categories. Business costs such as labor, energy and taxes are weighted most heavily.
Other states in the top 10 include: Colorado (4), Washington (5), Oregon (6), Texas (7), Georgia (8), Nebraska (9) and Kansas (10).