Boise No. 2 On Forbes List Of Top Job Producing Cities Survey Finds Lower Costs Key To Luring New Business

What do Las Vegas; Austin, Texas, and Boise do better than the megacities of New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles? They’re better at producing new jobs, and a survey in Forbes magazine says that’s because they have lower taxes, wages, office rents and other costs of doing business.

“There’s no mystery: Business creates jobs, and business goes where - other things being fairly equal - costs are low,” said the article, “It’s the costs, stupid,” appearing in the Oct. 21 issue of Forbes.

The survey found that Las Vegas gained 162,000 jobs, a 38 percent net increase, from January 1990 to July 1996, ranking it No. 1 in job creation among 36 cities. Its business costs were 10 percent below the national average, according to the magazine, which hits the newsstands today.

The magazine said low taxes were a key factor in Las Vegas’ lure. “With lower taxes, everything else becomes cheaper, too: wages, rents, energy costs.”

Boise tied with the Austin-San Marcos metropolitan area in Texas, for second place in the jobs sweepstakes. The magazine said each area posted a 34 percent gain in jobs over the January 1990-July 1996 period. And their costs of doing business were under the national average. The net increase in employment was figured after deducting any job losses.

At the bottom of the scale was Philadelphia.

The survey calculated that the City of Brotherly Love actually lost jobs, down 6 percent overall, during the 1990-96 period, and that its costs for businesses were 10 percent above the national average.

Other job losers were: Hartford, Conn.; Los Angeles; Honolulu; San Francisco; New Haven, Conn.; and New York. Employment gains during that period were offset by the number of jobs that left the regions.

Again, the survey found that all those cities, especially New York, were pricey for businesses. New York’s costs were 42 percent above average.

Among the winners, the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro area in Arkansas saw the number of jobs climb by 30 percent over the 5-year period as did the Provo-Orem region of Utah. Their business costs were below the national norm, the magazine said.

Salt Lake City posted a 27 percent gain in jobs, while Albuquerque, N.M., was not far behind at 26 percent for the same period.

Green Bay, Wis., and the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area of Texas each showed an overall increase of 23 percent in employment, according to Forbes. Seven areas scored employment gains of 21 percent over the period. They were: Elkhart-Goshen, Ind.; FortMyers-Cape Coral, Fla.; Orlando, Fla.; Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.; Reno, Nev.; San Antonio, and Springfield, Mo.

Rounding out the list of low-cost cities were the Portland, Ore.Vancouver, Wash., region with a job increase of 20 percent, and the Florida metro area of Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, with 19 percent more jobs than in 1990.

The cost data was compiled by Patrick Howie of Regional Financial Associates Inc., of West Chester, Pa. His business cost index was based on local taxes, labor and energy costs and office rents. The national index is 100. Cities with lower costs ranked below 100, and those with higher prices, above it.