Sunday, December 04, 2011
State business climate: Texas is #1
Being a corporate tool, I get such unsolicited publications as Site Selection magazine, which purports to provide timely advice on, well, the selection of sites for business. Its "2011 Business Climate Rankings" are out, and Texas leads the list.
By most measures, including Site Selection's own Governor's Cup and Business Climate Rankings, Texas is the place to be for business and industry. Companies are flocking to the Lone Star State — Atlas Van Lines' annual study of corporate relocations in 2010 logged more than 7,200 relocations inbound to Texas, the sixth highest, and 5,300 outbound relocations. Overall, Texas claimed 58 percent of the inbound relocations. More to the point, 40 percent of the new U.S. jobs created since June 2009 were created in Texas...
We pass this information along mostly because back when Rick Perry was the leading not-Mitt there was no end of argument about whether Texas was, in fact, more attractive for business than other states. While there may be many bases for arguing with Site Selection magazine, it seems to me that its rankings are perhaps more credible than those of organizations (including government agencies) that might want to influence the presidential race.
The article itself is reasonably interesting, too.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Sun Dec 04, 08:38:00 PM:
If Perry can't make a comeback before the Iowa/New Hampshire circus commences in January, shouldn't he gracefully retire from the race? Nate Silver, the smartest lefty by a mile, thinks the non-Mitts will hang around until March. I hope not.
Off topic: as a corporate tool with compliance responsibilities you're perhaps a good source to answer a question. One of my children just got a job, to commence after graduation (and we are ecstatic) and the offer letter had a curious boiler plate clause. She MUST "clear" all political donations through her employer before making them, as a condition of employment. The firm ascribes this to "SEC regulations" as of March, 2011. Implied, but not stated, is that the employer can prohibit her from making the donation.
Have you, or anyone else here, ever heard of a commercial entity trying to control the private political speech of it's employees (even low-level-first-job employees)? This has my blood boiling.
By , at
Sun Dec 04, 09:15:00 PM:
Very surprised to see California in the top 20.
By 
TheCrankyProfessor, at
Mon Dec 05, 06:49:00 AM:
Now that I'm a department chair I get the occasional unsolicited viewbook from one or another of our rival expensive small liberal arts colleges. I can't quite figure out why they're mailing them to people like me (opinion molder? yeah, of students in Art 101, Cave Painting to Medieval). USNews is not, so far as I know, polling anyone below the level of senior staff administrators for the reputational elements of their college rankings, but maybe I'm in line to get some questionnaires soon!
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Tue Dec 06, 10:02:00 PM:
Job creation - 3 out of 4 of those Texas jobs created are going to recent immigrants. There are states losing jobs, so Texas deserves some credit, but don't get all that excited.
http://cis.org/immigrants-filled-most-new-jobs-in-Texas/
