Sioux City shines in Forbes job ranking

Sioux City Forbes Ranking

It’s not every day that we make the list of top cities for business, but in an August ranking by Forbes, Sioux City had a good showing.

The ranking, called the Best Small Places for Business and Careers, Sioux City fell at No. 29 in the smaller cities category. You may be saying to yourself “No. 29” – but that’s not that good. Consider that there are 184 metro areas in the small cities ranking, and we don’t look too bad. The large city ranking was topped by Des Moines.

Additionally, if you dig in a bit further, you see a pretty positive picture.

Sioux City ranks No. 4 for Cost of Doing Business. That’s right behind Rapid City, S.D., Sioux Falls, S.D., and Lewiston, Idaho. Additionally, our unemployment rate is still well below the national average, at 4.8 percent. Those are important numbers, especially as companies work to bring down costs of production.

Another factor that’s important for residents: The cost of living is 12.7 percent lower than the national average, which means residents keep more of their paycheck in their pockets.

The list also included Job Growth Rank, and Sioux City fell at No. 70 on the list. Is there room to improve here, sure. Job growth in 2012 was just 1.4 percent. The good news – our projected growth for the coming year is 1.7 percent.

In an unrelated side note, Sioux City also was named one of the most anti-hipster cities. We’re in pretty good company here, including Spokane, Wash., El Paso, and Memphis, Tenn.

Photo via Flickr.