Good reason to live in ND or MN

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=112976&section=business

Report puts N.D. near top
[Forum and wire reports, The ForumPublished Friday, December 30, 2005]

BOSTON – North Dakota is ranked sixth in the nation by a Boston-based study that measures economic competitiveness based on ability to generate income and promote growth.
‘That’s great news,” state Commerce Commissioner Shane Goettle said Thursday.
“It validates some of the information we have about wage growth in the state and what we see in economic activity in some of our targeted industries,” he said.

North Dakota is one of two states in the nation to show job growth in manufacturing from 2000 to 2005, he said. The other was Nevada.

Over the past five years, North Dakota has added 1,900 manufacturing jobs , Goettle said.
Per capita personal income grew 25 percent from 2000 to 2004, second only to Connecticut, he said, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The fifth annual report, to be released today by Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill Institute in Boston, ranked Massachusetts first.

The state’s strengths across a broad range of economic indicators earned it the top spot again, despite the Bay State’s recent population decline and slow job growth.

The report’s authors cited the state’s strong technology base, the quality of its work force and its generous support for new business ventures. Those strengths offset weaknesses in the state’s infrastructure and in its environment.

“This year’s report should go a long way toward dispelling recent, gloomy assessments of the state economy,” David Tuerck, Beacon Hill Institute’s executive director, said in a news release. “Looking at just one or two economic indicators can, as we see, prove misleading. “Despite slow job growth and population loss, Massachusetts continues to be an attractive place to live and work,” Tuerck said.

The study’s authors define competitiveness as “the policies and conditions that ensure and sustain a higher level of per capita income and its continued growth.” The report assigns 42 variables to eight categories: government and fiscal policy, security, infrastructure, human resources, technology, business incubation, openness and environmental policy.

New Hampshire rose to No. 2 in the rankings, from No. 7 the previous year.
Rounding out the top 10 states, in order, were: Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, Washington, Alaska, Maryland and Minnesota.

The lowest-ranking state was Louisiana, followed by Mississippi (49th), Arkansas (48th), West Virginia (47th), Indiana (46th) and Hawaii (45th).