Our mixture of high tech, strong universities and community colleges, work force skills and a generally business friendly environment (read: taxes, regulation) has paid off with another No. 1 ranking.
North Carolina is back in the top it usually has in Site Selection magazine’s annual survey of best business climates.
The Tar Heel state is ranked No. 1 for the 10th time in 12 years in the latest review, based on rankings by corporate “site seekers” as well as a variety of other criteria. Such rankings aren’t new for N.C., which finished No. 4 in a recent CNBC survey.
While the 50 executives picked Texas over North Carolina, our state made up for that based on tax analysis from the Tax Foundation and accounting firm KPMG’s Location Matters analysis of tax burden plus 10 “location factors.”
North Carolina ranked No. 2 in the executive survey, No. 5 in competitiveness, No. 4 in new plants for 2011, No. 13 for new plants through June of this year, No. 7 in “mature firm tax index,” No. 13 in “new firm tax index rate” and scored 458 points to 444.5 for Ohio.
Texas took over the overall top spot last year but fell to No. 3 in the new survey. Ohio rose to No. 2 from No. 9 just last year.
North Carolina ranked No. 1 for six straight years through 2010.
Southern states dominate, however, taking nine of the top 10.
The magazine gushes over Gov. Bev Perdue and her recruitment efforts as well as the state’s work force and more.
Unfortunately, North Carolina still has one of the nation’s worst unemployment rates. (October numbers won’t be out until Nov. 16.)
“North Carolina’s combination of work-force availability and skill sets of interest to employers, proactive business-development agencies, logistics assets and higher education infrastructure helped it reclaim Site Selection’s Top Business Climate spot from rival Texas,” wrote Mark Arend in Site Selection.
Lenovo’s recent decision to add a PC production line at its distribution center in the Triad was cited as a North Carolina success story for 2012.
The magazine also touted the state’s landing of a Deere-Hitachi expansion in Kernersville.
