SANTA MONICA, CA – According to the Milken Institute’s “Best Performing Cities” January 2015 report, Baton Rouge came in 21st for 2014. New Orleans came in at #67.
Nestled in between Lubbock, TX, at #20 and San Diego, CA, at #22, Baton Rouge climbed 55 spots from its ranking of #76 in 2013.
New Orleans climbed 21 spots from #88 in 2013.
The report states Baton Rouge experienced the biggest jump of any “Large City” in the Top 50. “It ranked 11th for short-term job growth and improved its performance in measures for job and wage growth,” the report shows. “The metro’s small high-tech sector posted a large percentage increase in output, placing it sixth in that category, but employment gains were driven primarily by other sectors, especially construction and health care.”
The report goes on to say Baton Rouge's “large-scale construction projects have supported significant increases in employment in recent years. Specialty trade contractors added 2,443 jobs in 2013, and in the five years between 2008 and 2013, the metro added more jobs in this industry than any other metro in the nation (4,231 jobs). Heavy and civil-engineering construction added 1,416 jobs in 2013, and the announcement of large-scale petrochemical projects like Shell’s $12.5-billion gas-to-liquids plant suggests that this level of activity will be sustained in the near-term as companies expand in the Baton Rouge area to take advantage of low-cost natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico or transported to the region for processing. Motion-picture and sound-recording industries added more than 800 jobs in 2013, benefiting from Louisiana’s Motion Picture Investor Tax Credit.
“While the student population (at Louisiana State University) doesn’t dominate the local economy as is happening in smaller metros on our list, it does help support consumer spending and makes the metro a local hub for high-tech employers seeking a more skilled workforce.”
The report cites Baton Rouge as having assets including “a low cost of doing business, generous incentives and access to energy products that attract manufacturing and other companies.”
Liabilities, the report said, include the city’s “key industries are vulnerable to fluctuations in commodity prices in the energy industry.”
The study rates 200 large and 179 small cities on job growth, wage and salary growth and the size and concentration of high tech industry.
The 2015 Report ranked San Francisco, CA, Austin, TX, Provo, UT, San Jose, CA and Raleigh, NC, as the Top 5 Best Performing Large Cities.
The Milken Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan economic think tank, that’s says it works to improve lives around the world by advancing innovative economic and policy solutions that create jobs, widen access to capital, and enhance health. They say they produce rigorous, independent economic research—and maximize its impact by convening global leaders from the worlds of business, finance, government and philanthropy.
