State's 2 biggest cities drop on Forbes list
Survey ranks U.S. metro areas by business climate
By ANDREW JOHNSON
andrewjohnson@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 4, 2006
Mayor Tom Barrett touts Milwaukee as a city that is "open for business," but a Forbes magazine survey released Thursday says that doing business here has become more difficult.
Milwaukee and Madison fell 38 places and 21 places, respectively, in Forbes' eighth annual "Best Places for Business and Careers Survey," which ranks the 200 largest U.S. metro areas based on economic conditions and quality of life factors.
The rankings pegged Albuquerque, N.M., as the top city for business, followed by Raleigh, N.C., and Houston.
Rankings are based on several factors, including the cost of doing business, cost of living, education, income growth and job growth.
"I think the rankings give a good proxy for the economic climate of a metro area," said Kurt Badenhausen, associate editor of Forbes.
Increases in the cost of doing business and the cost of living, combined with declines in income growth and job growth, contributed to Milwaukee's fall to No. 124 from No. 86 a year ago. Those same areas caused Madison to skid to No. 31 from No. 10 a year ago. One factor that contributed to many cities' decline in this year's list was the expansion of the list from the top 150 metro areas to the top 200. Because of that expansion, Green Bay debuted this year at 106 - 18 places in front of Milwaukee.
