MO ranks No. 16 in CNBC business report

Missouri ranked No. 16 in America's Top States For Business, a report released recently by CNBC.

Missouri fell behind Virginia at the top spot, but no adjacent states made the Top 15, according to the report.

All 50 states were ranked based on 43 competitiveness measures developed with input from business groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the Council on Competitiveness.

Those measures were then broken down into 10 broad categories; states also were ranked based on those individual categories:

• Cost of doing business, Missouri, No. 3;
• Work force, Missouri, No. 33;
• Quality of life, Missouri, No. 34;
• Economy, Missouri, No. 29;
• Transportation and infrastructure, Missouri, No. 9;
• Technology and innovation, Missouri, No. 23;
• Education, Missouri, No. 17;
• Business friendliness, Missouri, No. 25;
• Access to capital, Missouri, No. 22; and
• Cost of living, Missouri, No. 8.

In Missouri's economic profile, CNBC pointed to the state's population of nearly 6 million; its $35,594 (2009 per capita) gross domestic product; its May unemployment rate of 8.9 percent; its May foreclosure rate of one per 1,037 households; its projected 2012 budget gap of $704 million; its corporate tax rate of 6.25 percent; and its largest employers, Boeing, AT&T and Schnuck Markets, as additional reasons for its ranking.

Missouri ranked No. 17 in CNBC's 2010 report.[[In-content Ad]]