Louisiana Ranks No. 10 In Site Selection Economic Development Rating

BATON ROUGE, La. — Site Selection magazine has rated Louisiana’s economic development efforts among the Top 10 in the U.S. in its Prosperity Cup rankings for 2017. In its evaluation of economic development performance by each of the 50 states, the magazine ranked Louisiana No. 10, citing its record of new and expanded facilities, high capital investment and substantial job creation.

This is Louisiana’s seventh Top 10 showing in the past nine years in the Prosperity Cup, which formerly was known as the Top Competitive States rankings. Louisiana ranked No. 11 in 2016.

“Louisiana is a top-tier state for business,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “This Top 10 showing in the Prosperity Cup rankings is a recognition of our hard work to create and sustain a healthy business climate in Louisiana. We will continue to attract new industries and businesses and encourage business expansions to provide the best jobs and economic opportunities for our citizens.”

Since 2012, Louisiana has attracted more than $125 billion in active capital investment projects, with $65 billion of that investment now under construction or in the engineering and permitting phases.

“We are proud of the strong emphasis we place on economic development across the board, from small business services to major industrial projects,” Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson said. “We announced several major new projects across Louisiana in the past year and saw progress on numerous projects already underway. Our industrial base remains strong, and we are expanding our information technology sector in locations throughout the state as we continue to grow our 21^st century economy.”

The Site Selection rankings calculate the total points a state-level economic development agency receives primarily based on the number of significant new and expanded facility announcements. Louisiana made the Top 10 for 2017 with a score of 347. The No. 1 state in the rankings, North Carolina, had 410 points. Louisiana also ranked fourth among eight states in the highly competitive South Central Region.

“Locations throughout the U.S. and in every region of the world compete aggressively for direct investment at home and from abroad,” Site Selection Editor in Chief Mark Arend said. “Those appearing on these rankings have demonstrated with actual project numbers and other measures that they have the location attributes most in demand by capital investors.”

Louisiana currently places among the Top 10 states in several business climate rankings. In March, the annual Governor’s Cup rankings by Site Selection placed Louisiana No. 4 in the U.S. for states that announced the most new and expanded corporate facilities on a per capita basis in 2016. Southern Business & Development ranked Louisiana No. 1 among Southern states for attracting the most significant capital investment and job-creation projects per capita for the seventh year in a row. Area Development ranked Louisiana No. 5 in its annual Top States for Doing Business report, and Louisiana was ranked No. 7 in the Site Selection Best States for Business report, its seventh consecutive year in the Top 10.

Additionally, Business Facilities has named LED FastStart^® the nation’s best workforce training program for the past seven consecutive years, describing the program as “the gold standard for workforce training solutions.”

About Site Selection
Site Selection magazine, published by Conway Inc., delivers expansion planning information to 45,000 executives of fast-growing firms. It is the senior publication in the development field. Read more about the Site Selection Prosperity Cup Awards at SiteSelection.com.