New survey on business location decisions

Posted by on February 4, 2005

New survey on business location decisions:

Survey discussed in article is available at:
http://www.survey.lsu.edu/LouisianaBusinessImageReport2004.pdf
This was a national survey, not just Louisiana based-businesses.

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Workers key to luring businesses
Executives rank work force issues as most important
Thursday, January 27, 2005
By Ed Anderson
Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE — Skilled workers and a trained work force are key factors that business executives look for when deciding where to open or expand their operations, according to a survey of about 1,000 out-of-state corporate officials released Wednesday by Louisiana State University researchers.

The $79,000 Louisiana Business Image Survey was conducted by LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab for Gov. Kathleen Blanco; the state Department of Economic Development; and the Committee of 100, a nonpartisan statewide organization of businesses.

The survey said that that work force factors outrank tax rates and state and local incentives as factors that can lure a plant or office to a state or city.

Of 26 factors to be considered in selecting a location for a business, the survey showed that 77.7 percent of the nation’s business executives ranked labor productivity as important, while availability of skilled labor was second at 76.1 percent and labor costs were third at 69.6 percent. Traditional business hooks, such as corporate taxes, tax exemptions and state and local incentives, fell to the middle or lower end of the list of factors considered by executives when making location decisions.