New rankings: Utah 12th for business; Salt Lake City 3rd for jobs

Utah is the nation's 12st best state for business, according to a new Chief Executive Magazine ranking.

The ranking measures the sentiments of CEOs on a range of issues, including regulations, tax policies, workforce quality, educational resources, quality of living and infrastructure, according to a news release.

For the 2013 survey, 736 CEOs from across the country evaluated the states between Jan. 16 and Feb. 14, 2013.

The magazine ranked Texas first for the ninth consecutive year, followed by Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana.

The nation's worst states for business, according to the magazine, are California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Utah bested the national average in a several key metrics used for the CEO ranking, including gross domestic product growth, unemployment rate and state and local tax burden.

In addition, "Utah has a young, easy to work with workforce," according to the magazine.

Chief Executive Magazine's rankings came just as Forbes magazine also listed Salt Lake City as the nation's third-best city for jobs in 2013, noting employment growth of 4 percent in 2012.

San Francisco ranked first in Forbes' survey, followed by Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tenn.

Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas, ranked fourth and Houston-Sugarland-Baytown, Texas, ranked fifth.

Forbes ranked all 398 current metropolitan statistical areas based on employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics from November 2001 through January 2013, according to its website. It based its rankings on growth trends, mid-term growth, long-term growth and each region's momentum.