11.02.2009 12:14 pm
Missouri, Illinois slip in business-climate ranking
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Illinois and Missouri both lost ground this year in Site Selection magazine’s influential business climate ranking. The magazine’s latest league table, based partly on a survey of executives and partly on actual plant-location decisions, has Illinois No. 14 and Missouri No. 19. A year ago, Illinois ranked 9th and Missouri was tied for 12th.
(4 votes, average: 1 out of 5)
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David Nicklaus has covered St. Louis business for more than 25 years. His column appears three days a week on the Post-Dispatch business page. 
If this is 14th and 19th out of all the states-that’s not bad.
If it is 14th and 19th out of a smaller ‘universe’..it’s not good.
I’m afraid this survey begs more questions than it answers. Is it possible that the job losses in other states exceeds those of Missouri and Illinois which would then offer businesses a cheaper labor pool? In a similar vein are real estate values lower and tax-based incentives higher in parts of the country that have been hit harder than the Midwest? Or is it because economic growth has declined more than in other parts of the country?
If the lower rankings are the result of greater stability in the Midwest - less volatility than in other parts of the country - I wouldn’t be concerned. If, however, we’re not creating a well-educated labor pool and have lost interest in economic growth, indeed, these would be alarming statistics.
The more we send to China, the less we will have here.
I can not believe there are those who are trying to extract some positive in these statistics! Oh my, is the Midwest mentality that Parochial? I thought that was just a rumor.
Wake up people, Missouri and especially STL is going the way of Detroit and everyone currently in power to make a change, or consider something out of the box or unique is playing their fiddle, as we burn.