Forbes: Des Moines Best City in Nation for Business and Careers

Des Moines with its relatively low cost of doing business and educated workforce tops the Best Places for Business and Careers 2013 from Forbes.  

The report notes that despite declining unemployment numbers, the economy is still sputtering along at 2 percent growth with many still out of work but discouraged by their prospects.

Des Moines bucks the trend. 

Des Moines, Iowa tops our list this year. It is the only place that ranks among the top quartile in at least nine of the 12 metrics we graded the cities on. Highlights for the Des Moines metro include business costs that are 17% below the national average and an educated workforce where 36% of the population has a college degree and 92% possess a high school diploma.

Des Moines is noted for its position in finance and insurance with "the highest concentration of financial services employment in the country."

One of the highlights is in West Des Moines where Microsoft announced a $678 million expansion of it's data center. Facebook also is opening a tech center in Altoona. 

"A big carrot in Iowa for data centers and other businesses with heavy energy usage: Energy costs are 22% below the national average in Iowa, according to Moody’s Anayltics," Forbes writes.

It is not just the service economy thriving in Des Moines. The metro area had record merchandise exports last year of $1.2 billion, up 22% over 2011. Top categories include agricultural products, plastics and rubber products, processed foods, machinery, and chemicals.

The rest of the list includes:

2. Provo, Utah

3. Raleigh, North Carolina

4. Lincoln, Nebraska

5. Nashville, Tennessee

6. Denver, Colorado

7. Fort Collins, Colorado

8. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

9. Seattle, Washington

10. Durham, North Carolina

11. San Antonio, Texas