For the Third Straight Year, Raleigh named second among Best Places for Business and Career in U.S

Gushing about all the great opportunities and other reasons for the lofty ranking of Raleigh among the 2018 Best Places for Business and Career in U.S., the Forbes.com blogpost detailing the rankings noted, “Raleigh ranks second for the third straight year. It has been the most consistent performer in our annual Best Places study, finishing in the top three each of the past 16 years.” As explained in the text below, there are countless factors that play into Raleigh being viewed among the Best Places for Business and Career in U.S, and Forbes listed these statistics as direct reasoning as to their “3-peat” in the number two slot on the list:

• Population: 1,339,500 • Major Industries: Technology, Health Care, Education • Gross Metro Product: $76.6 Billion • Median Household Income: $73,884 • Median Home Price: $279,000 • Unemployment: 3.6% • Job Growth (2017): 2.6% • Cost of Living: 1% above U.S average • College Attainment: 46.2% • Net Migration (2017): 5,520 In further explanation of the research that went into the Forbes listing of the Best Places for Business and Career in the U.S., the highly respected financial experts’ official website said, “Forbes has tracked the business climates of the largest metro areas for two decades. We compared the 200 largest metros this year on 14 metrics related to jobs, incomes and economic growth; business and living costs; as well as education levels (a ranking of smaller metros can be found here). Other factors included migration; culture and leisure opportunities; and workplace tolerance laws.” Citing their sources and the size range of municipalities analyzed for the annual Best Places for Business and Career in the U.S, the article concluded, “The metros ranged in size from 14.5 million people (New York) to 269,000 (Norwich, Connecticut). Data providers were Moody’s Analytics, Sperling’s Best Places, U.S. Census. Cushman & Wakefield the Movement Advancement Project (see here for more details on methodology, plus best and worst performers across metrics).