|
Rising business costs hurt
cities' ranking
by Heather
B. Hayes
for Virginia Business
July 2006
Northern Virginia’s reputation as a good place
to run a company and hold a job lost a bit of its luster
in a recent survey. The region dropped from No. 4 last
year to No. 17 on an annual list of Best Places for Business
and Careers compiled by Forbes.
Forbes’ staff studies large metro areas and ranks
the top 200 using criteria such as cost of doing business,
job growth, income growth, educational attainment, taxes,
cost of living, migration patterns and quality-of-life
issues. Northern Virginia’s decline in the list,
according to the survey, was largely because of a drop
in ranking for income growth from the previous year.
The area ranked 11th in income growth in 2005 but plummeted
to 95th in 2006.
The Richmond area also took a tumble,
falling from No. 14 to No. 41, due in part to a lower
ranking for
its
cost of doing business. Forbes’ index for the
category is based on cost of labor, energy, taxes and
office space.
Other Virginia areas that made the large metro list are
Virginia Beach (No. 48); Lynchburg (No. 109); and Roanoke
(No. 165). Virginia Beach made the list for the first
time, and Roanoke and Lynchburg were ranked on a second
list for metro areas of less than 50,000 residents in
2005, finishing No. 44 and No. 49, respectively.
Charlottesville was ranked No. 32 on the second list
of small metro areas in 2006, a drop from its No. 12
finish in 2005. Other smaller cities in Virginia that
made the cut this year were Harrisonburg, (No. 53); Blacksburg
(No. 65); and Danville (No. 162, a drop from its No.
123 ranking in 2005).
|
