Blog

What we've learned about Boeing, multipliers and the state economy

With the governor committed to seeing the 777X built here (stories in the Seattle Times and Everett Herald) I thought it worthwhile to link to some of our previous work related to Boeing’s impact on the economy. In 2009 we produced an economic impact report, What If Boeing Left Washington. Some findings: Since each Boeing […]

Competitiveness key to landing Boeing 777X: Inslee announces aerospace strategy

Gov. Jay Inslee has joined the competitiveness battle, a high stakes bid to assure that the Boeing 777X is built here. The Seattle Times writes: Gov. Jay Inslee proposes funding a new cargo facility at the Port of Everett, extending Boeing’s tax breaks and streamlining the local permitting process in Everett as part of a […]

Best Cities for Jobs – Seattle Ranks No. 14 Among Large Cities

The competition among states is often more about competition among metro areas. Some industries thrive in urban centers. Tech, health care, mass media and other creative enterprises are among them. New Geography recently published a ranking of the "best cities for job growth." And again we see a different methodology – not policies, not perceptions, […]

Site Selection magazine's Top 10 Competitive States. TX #1, WA not among them.

Another magazine business climate ranking, using a different methodology than the Chief Executive survey I linked to earlier today. Site Selection ranks the states based on a formula that includes new and expanded facilities, capital investment, jobs created, tax policy (using the Tax Foundation tax climate report), the Beacon Hill Institute’s business climate index, and […]

WA ranks No. 36 in Chief Executive magazine business climate survey

Washington does not fare well in the latest business climate survey conducted by Chief Executive magazine. The state comes in No. 36, between Maine and Rhode Island. The top ten are unsurprising: Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, Arizona, Virginia, South Carolina, Nevada and Georgia. At the bottom of the list are Illinois, New York […]

States should pay attention to business climate studies, because costs matter

Good Jobs First, a left-leaning nonprofit, attracted a lot of attention this week with a new study claiming business climate studies are …politicized grab-bags of data. They have no predictive value and should not be used to inform public policies. Some of the attention came from one of the groups they criticized, the Beacon Hill […]

Arteries of Commerce

Here are a couple of cool maps showing flows of goods by truck to, from and within Washington state.  Flows include domestic and international freight moving by truck on highway segments with more than twenty-five trucks per day and between places typically more than fifty miles apart. The first map, for 2007, is based on […]

Washington gets generally high marks in new U.S. Chamber report, lags in "talent pipeline"

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released its annual report on states’ economic and policy performance, with a special focus on small business. The 2013 Enterprising States report provides a lot of good, well-documented information for business owners and policymakers. We’ve written about it before before. As the state did last year, Washington shows up well. […]

New study finds Seattle has nation's 8th worst traffic congestion

Emily wrote earlier today about the House Transportation Committee’s work on a new funding plan. Also today the Puget Sound Business Journal reported on a new study confirming commuter perceptions. Seattle’s traffic problems are the eighth-worst in the country, according to a new study by Kirkland-based traffic data company Inrix. According to the sixth Inrix […]

Six southern cities in top 10 fastest growing metros – Seattle is No. 15

At his Urbanophile blog, Aaron M. Renn looks at the fastest/slowest growing metros in 2012. The top five are Nashville, Houston, Austin, Salt Lake City, and San Jose (proving that people still know the way). Silicon Valley continues to attract, despite California’s notoriously bleak economic climate. The other cities are in states generally considered business […]