The Best States For Business

Forbes Magazine ^ | November 22, 2011 | Kurt Badenhausen

[SteelToe]

The U.S. economy grew by 2.5% in the third quarter which was its best performance in a year, but no one is breaking out the party hats just yet after the first half saw microscopic growth of 0.9%. Economic problems are still seemingly everywhere.

Unemployment is too high at 9.1% with underemployment running at a recent 16.2%. Housing prices continue to fall. U.S. corporate income taxes remain the second highest in the world. The Greek debt crisis is not going anywhere and gridlock in Congress continues unabated. It is enough to make anyone what to scream.

10 images Photos: The Best States For Jobs

Photos: Slide Show: The Best Places For Business And Careers Yet for businesses or employees struggling with the question of where to relocate (or expand in the case of businesses), we offer a scorecard on what states have the best business climates.

Utah repeats this year as Forbes Best State for Business and Careers in our sixth annual look at the business climates of the 50 states. No state can match the consistent performance of Utah. It is the only state that ranks among the top 15 states in each of the six main categories we rate the states on.

[Morpheus2009]

It’s nice to see Louisiana and Virginia up there in the rankings, being an East Coaster and all...

[Vigilanteman]

Bookmarked for later viewing.

[Rembrandt]

Economic growth was today quietly revised downward, from 2.5% to 2.0%. Isn’t it odd that virtually all of this Administrations estimating errors seem to be high, rather than some high, some low....all high (I think that’s also referred to as lying).

[dixjea]

Utah is #1 for the second year in a row! Must be all those pesky Mormons.

[Right Wing Assault]

You can tell how well things are going when #2 and #3 on the list have 13.4% unemployment.

[ExCTCitizen]

I thought the best business state was Connecticut, with all the nice business friendly Dems running (or is it ruining?) the state.