OKC moves up in Top 50 best business metros
Journal Record
December 2nd, 2008

There’s a lot of bad news everywhere you look these days. Bad things are up - good things are down.

But here’s a little ray of sunshine for your cloudy day. When it comes to business, Oklahoma City is less horrible than many other places - and it just got a little better.

In it’s second year of ranking of the best U.S. metro areas for business, MarketWatch.com saw Oklahoma move up the list 5 spots to #22.

There are 50 cities rated, with Minneapolis-St.Paul was the most promising business town and New Orleans being the most God-awful business environment.

“And Oklahoma City made the biggest gains in its unemployment ranking, jumping up 18 spots…”

Florida tanked this year, with two giant hubs losing steam big time.

Tampa-St. Pete by far experienced the biggest point drop and fell the farthest in the rankings. The Florida Twin Cities dropped 15 spaces after sliding by 55 points.

Also, Jacksonville dropped by 19 spots for unemployment.

Players shift, but Twin Cities still best for business (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Players-change-Twin-Cities-still/story.aspx?guid={545526D2-EE56-472C-B568-749D0EA2AE88})

Here's the list (hey, we beat Memphis twice this week):

1. Minneapolis-St. Paul
2. Boston
3. Denver
4. Washington, D.C.
5. Richmond
6. Charlotte
7. Columbus
8. Nashville
9. Dallas
10. San Francisco
11. New York
12. Houston
13. Salt Lake City
14. Seattle
15. Atlanta
16. Milwaukee
17. St. Louis
18. Raleigh
19. Birmingham
20. Kansas City
21. Jacksonville
22. Oklahoma City
23. Memphis
24. Indianapolis
25. Pittsburgh
26. Cleveland
27. Chicago
28. Austin
29. Philadelphia
30. Portland
31. Phoenix
32. San Diego
33. Louisville
34. Baltimore
35. Hartford
36. Orlando
37. Cincinnati
38. Las Vegas
39. Providence
40. Miami
41. San Antonio
42. Virginia Beach
43. Detroit
44. Tampa-St. Petersburg
45. Los Angeles
46. Rochester
47. Sacramento
48. Tucson
49. Buffalo
50. New Orleans

I am impressed.

Good to see improvement. I wonder what puts Richmond up so high?

Good to see improvement. I wonder what puts Richmond up so high?



5. Richmond, Va. -- 275 points: This region has benefitted from a migration toward Virginia, as well as residual effects of proximity to Washington, though it may end up slipping somewhat in future rankings now that one of its largest companies, Circuit City Stores Inc., has fallen into bankruptcy.

Richmond lost 13 points in the rankings from last year and thus slipped from third place to fifth. Circuit City's ejection from the S&P 500 contributed to that slippage. Richmond also lost ground in concentration of Russell 2000 companies. But the area remained at the top of the list in the concentration of Fortune 1000 companies.

Looks like it's the Fortune 1000 companies that are propping it up.