CFED (the Corporation for Enterprise Development) publishes an annual economic development survey that goes beyond most such measurements. It looks at how healthy each state's economy is, not just for businesses, but for wage-earners, as well as how effectively the state is positioning its economy for the future. CFED says it works "to ensure that every person can participate in, contribute to, and benefit from the economy by bringing together community practice, public policy, and private markets."
The 2007 report is out now, and it shows Idaho leading the nation in some positive ways but lagging behind in others. Overall, we get an A for quality of life but a C for earnings and job quality. Our strengths include patents issued, low energy costs, home ownership rates, and heart disease, but we are among the 10 weakest states in areas including industrial diversity, health professional shortage areas, recycling, mass transit, and average annual pay (#46)
“Idaho is obviously heading in a good direction,” David Buchholz, research director for CFED, said in a press release accompanying the results. “Idaho is generating a lot of new businesses and is a leader in manufacturing investment and in building and maintaining its infrastructure. The state still has its shortcomings ‐‐ including low and stagnating wages, a weak diversity of industries, and a large number of business closings. But the progress on many fronts is undeniably positive.”
This page lists all the measurements, and you can drill down to get explanations and the results in each in all 50 states. It's demography heaven, kids!
Some of the metrics may be a little misleading, or require further study at the least. For example, Idaho ranks #1 nationwide in new businesses, with 12.61 new companies started for every 1,000 workers in 2005. But we also rank #44 in business closings, with 14% of our companies closing in 2004-2005. We also top the nation in per-capita patents issued, but in a recent column at New West, former U.S. Rep. Larry LaRocco wrote, "That's great.....if the patents come from a broad array of high tech companies. In Idaho those patents are primarily focused in two areas: Micron Technology and Hewlett-Packard. We shouldn't use misleading statistics as a brag sheet when we've really still got training wheels on the high tech cycle." (To my tech-sector readers: What's your take on this? It seems to me I've seen a lot of stories over the years about local tech start-ups and patents they've earned. Granted, many of them may be here becuase of HP and Micron, but isn't that how a vibrant tech sector usually works, with many small companies feeding off a few big ones?)
Fascinating stuff, anyway. Tell me about your favorite (or least favorite) metric, and why. (I've already written about mine at the Boise Bus Blog.)
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