INC. MAGAZINE NAMES LEWISTON-AUBURN ONE OF THE “TOP CITIES” FOR BUSINESS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Paul Badeau
Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council
784-0161
April 09, 2004
In March, Inc. Magazine ranked Lewiston-Auburn among its “Top Cities for Doing Business in America.�
In the “Small Metro Areas� category, which included cities with up to 150,000 jobs, L-A came in 39th overall. L-A was the fifth highest-ranked New England community in its category, beating out other areas such as Nashua, N.H., Lowell, Mass., and Portsmouth-Dover-Rochester, N.H.
The only other Maine community to be included in Inc.’s 250-city list was Portland, which finished 23rd in its “Medium Cities� category.
The editors derived the rankings from three-month rolling averages of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics state and area unadjusted employment data from 1993 to September of 2003. The data include total non-farm employment, manufacturing, financial services, business and professional services, educational and health services, information, retail and wholesale trade, transportation and utilities, leisure and hospitality, and government jobs.
“The central premise behind the Top Cities rankings is that current and historical job growth is the most objective indicator of a region’s economic vitality for entrepreneurs,â€? writes Inc. author Joel Kotkin. “More than three-quarters of all new jobs are created by small business, according to the Small Business Administration… A region showing strong job growth is in all likelihood a hotbed of entrepreneurship.
“The impact on business of a city’s educational and training systems, housing and living costs, taxes, regulatory burdens, and quality of life – factors commonly measured by other “hot lists� to identify strong economies – are all ultimately reflected by job growth.�
