Business climate earns list mention

Louisiana has been making top listings for its business environment during the past three years. On Friday Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Louisiana now ranks No. 6 in a national business climate survey conducted by Area Development magazine.

The publication’s 2012 Top States for Doing Business report surveys the nation’s leading site selection consultants to rank states on multiple business-related factors.

Area Development ranked Louisiana rank No. 1 in the nation as having a cooperative state government, No. 2 for incentive programs, No. 3 for workforce development programs, No. 3 for speed of permitting and No. 4 for cost of doing business.

In major evaluation categories, Louisiana ranks No. 2 for leading in the economic recovery, No. 4 for overall business environment and No. 5 for overall labor climate.

“The latest ranking from Area Development is yet another example that our work to make Louisiana the best place in the world to do business and find a job is paying off,” Jindal said in a news release. “We have made great progress, but our work is not done yet. We won’t stop until we’re number one and that means taking on our next challenge of reforming our tax code so that it’s fairer, flatter and simpler.”

Area Development editors described Louisiana’s progress as remarkable because the state had not ranked in the publication’s Top 10 nationally before 2011.

“Louisiana has taken a very aggressive, targeted approach to improve its business climate over the past five years, and those efforts are clearly paying off,” the magazine’s editors wrote. “Most notably, the state ranked first for its cooperative state government and second for both its incentives programs and as a state that is leading in the economic recovery.”

Earlier this year, Louisiana received its highest-ever business climate ranking when Business Facilities placed the state No. 5 in its 2012 Rankings Report.

Business Facilities also ranked LED FastStart™ as the No. 1 state workforce development training program in the United States for the third straight year. The publication rated Louisiana No. 1 for economic growth potential and No. 1 for digital media performance.

In addition to Louisiana’s three Top 10 business climate rankings, the state has recorded rapid improvement in other leading rankings of state business climates. Louisiana now stands at its highest-ever position in business climate rankings published by Area Development, Business Facilities, Chief Executive, CNBC, Forbes, Pollina Corporate Real Estate and Site Selection.

Since 2008, Louisiana has created more than 54,000 new direct and indirect jobs representing more than $13.2 billion in new capital investment and increased annual sales for small businesses.

Last year, Site Selection named LED the top-performing state economic development agency in the U.S. LED has been ranked among the five top-performing state economic development agencies in the U.S. for the last three years in a row.