This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Different list, same result for Utah when it comes to assessing its business climate.
Thanks to high rankings in the categories of workforce, transportation and the cost of doing business, Utah moved up six spots to finish second this year in CNBC's sixth annual study of "America's Top States for Business."
Utah, which made the top five in 2007, 2008 and 2009, this time around outscored Virginia for the No. 2 spot, but its point total was below the winner, Texas (maybe because CNBC ranked Utah 45th in education).
The other states to make the top five were North Carolina and North Dakota.
CNBC noted the rankings were based on the same 10 categories as years past, but that the 51 criteria were tweaked to reflect changes in the ways states market themselves. It also noted that this year, at the suggestion of a number of state officials, it add state credit ratings to the criteria, which were used to help score the survey's economy category.
Utah frequently finds itself at the top of such state rankings.
In November, for the second year in a row, the state was named the best in the country for doing business by Forbes magazine.
In January, Utah was recognized as having the 10th-best tax climate among by the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based watchdog group.
And in late June, the Beehive state's three major metro areas were ranked among the 20 top communities nationwide in terms of their economic recoveries by the Brookings Institution.