Louisiana Receives Its Highest Ranking Ever In CEO Survey Of State Business Climates

BATON ROUGE, La. — Today, Chief Executive reported that CEOs nationwide rank Louisiana No. 9 in the U.S., the state’s highest position ever, in the magazine’s annual ranking of Best & Worst States for Business. The report continues the state’s ascent in national business climate rankings, with Louisiana showing the greatest improvement of any state in the U.S. over the past four years. Since 2010, Louisiana has improved a nation-best 31 spots in the Chief Executive survey.

Gov. Bobby Jindal said, “Since we took office in 2008, we’ve made economic development our top priority, creating a business environment where companies want to invest and create jobs for our citizens. We’ve reined in government spending, eliminated job-killing taxes on businesses, created customized workforce training programs, overhauled our governmental ethics laws, and passed game-changing legislation to give every child in Louisiana an opportunity for a great education that prepares them for jobs in the 21st century workforce. Louisiana’s incredible improvement in the rankings of best states for business is more proof that our hard work is paying off. Louisiana now has more jobs, more people and higher incomes than any point in our state’s history and our future is very bright.”

Chief Executive Editor-in-Chief J.P. Donlon stated in the magazine’s rankings report, “Having jumped 31 positions from 40th in 2010 to No. 9 this year, Louisiana is the Cinderella state of Chief Executive’s ranking, proving that a concerted effort to transform old habits and policies can truly pay off.”

Louisiana now places among the top 10 states nationally in four national business climate rankings, including those published by Area Development, Business Facilities, Chief Executive and Site Selection. In fact, Louisiana now ranks higher in every major national business climate ranking than it ever did prior to 2008.

Site Selection has ranked LED one of the top seven best performing state economic development agencies in the country for the last five years in a row. Business Facilities named LED FastStart^® the nation’s best state workforce training program for the last four consecutive years, describing the program as “the gold standard for workforce training solutions.” 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Louisiana is one of only 16 states in the U.S. (excluding Washington, D.C.) with more jobs today than in January 2008. In fact, BLS data indicates that Louisiana has produced the sixth fastest private-sector job growth in the U.S. (second fastest in the South) since January 2008. Additionally, Louisiana’s 4.5-percent unemployment rate is the lowest in the South, and it has remained well below that of the South and U.S. every month since January 2008. 

According to the U.S. Census, Louisiana recently experienced a sixth consecutive year of population in-migration, as more people moved into Louisiana than moved out of the state. 

About Chief Executive
Chief Executive magazine provides ideas, strategies and tactics for top executive leaders seeking to build more effective organizations. To learn more about the 2014 Best & Worst States for Business, visit www.chiefexecutive.net.