Louisiana Earns Seventh Consecutive Top 10 Spot In Site Selection Rating Of Best States For Business

BATON ROUGE, La. — Today, Site Selection named Louisiana to its Top 10 list of Best States for Business for the seventh year in a row. The publication ranked the state No. 7 in the magazine’s 2016 Top U.S. Business Climates report. This seventh consecutive year in the annual Site Selection Top 10 reinforces the state’s reputation as a top location for business investment and job creation.

“Site Selection’s ranking confirms what businesses around the globe have come to appreciate – how Louisiana’s highly skilled workforce, unrivaled geography and infrastructure provide the ideal climate for business growth and investment,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards. “We are proud to once again rank among the Top 10 best states for business in the country, and we remain committed to ensuring that businesses can thrive in Louisiana.”

Site Selection bases its business climate ranking on a variety of factors. Half of the score results from a survey of corporate site selectors who are asked to rank the states based on their recent experience of locating facilities in them. The other 50 percent is based on an index that includes total new projects year-to-date, both overall and per capita; state tax burdens on new and established companies; and performance in Site Selection’s annual Prosperity Cup ­­– formerly Top Competitive States – ranking.

Since 2012, more than $135 billion in new capital investment projects have been announced in Louisiana, with the potential for over 100,000 newly created jobs associated with these projects alone. Already, $65 billion in projects are under construction or in the engineering or permitting phases in Louisiana, with the remainder preparing for those formal project phases.

Earlier this year, Site Selection ranked Louisiana No. 6 in its annual Governor’s Cup, which ranks states for number of economic development projects. Additionally, Southern Business & Development ranked Louisiana No. 1 in number of major business projects per capita, and Area Development magazine placed Louisiana No. 5 in its Top States for Doing Business ranking, the sixth consecutive Top 10 ranking for Louisiana in that annual report.

In August Business Facilities ranked Louisiana in the Top 10 for multiple categories in its 2016 Rankings Report, including best infrastructure, lowest industrial electricity rates and Foreign Direct Investment leadership, as well as ranking LED FastStart as the nation’s No. 1 state workforce program for the seventh year in a row.

About Site Selection
Site Selection magazine, published by Conway Data Inc., delivers expansion-planning information to 49,000 executives of fast-growing firms. For more information about Site Selection, visit SiteSelection.com.