RANKINGS
2008 ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT RANKINGS
The results are in. Millions of points of data have been crunched
to reveal the foremost states in regard to leading industry sectors.
By Rachel Duran
In regard to this year’s annual rankings of leading states
for particular industry sectors, we asked BizMiner of
Camp Hill, Pa., to add a third category to further demonstrate the vitality of these sectors. What’s more, we have
also revamped the industry sector list. For example, we
have added an Alternative Energy sector ranking. While
this new ranking is a strong place to begin, there isn’t a
comprehensive way at this time to rank the alternative
energy sector. The rankings are based on information that
is available in the marketplace.
In regard to the vitality of the sectors, in addition to the
standard review of states based on startup and branch
activities, a review of employment concentration numbers
has been added. All information is based on real-time data
from the period of first quarter 2006 to first quarter 2007.
Startup activity rates show firms that reported one year
or less of operation during that same time period. Startups
are defined as firms that are one-year-old or less; branches
are excluded from this measure. Branches are defined as
secondary (non-headquarters) facilities of multi-site firms.
Employment concentrations compare total industry
employment levels among the states.
In all cases, only survivor firms, startups and branches
(those that maintained operations through the end of the
first quarter of 2007 time series) were counted.
Nationwide, across all industries, startup and new branch
development increased significantly from the previous year
— by 32 percent and 54 percent respectively.
New Industry Sectors Added
The industry sectors reviewed for 2008 include:
Aerospace, Agribusiness/Food Processing; Alternative
Energy; Automotive OEMs; Automotive Suppliers; Back
Office-FIRE; Biosciences; Health Services; High Tech;
