Good news! Forbes ranks Madison #1 best city to find a job in '09 (Milwaukee: university, tax)

[EnjoyEP]

Some good Madison ranking news I thought I would pass along -

Forbes Magazine released their annual list / ranking of the top cities in the US in which to find a job in 2009, and Madison comes in at the top spot - #1 - on the list!

Especially in today's current economic climate, it is great to see Madison ranked so well on a list for potential job-seekers (actually, Milwaukee, only an hour away, ranked #5 so that is a great job by the two main Wisconsin cities).

Read this story here (and yes, I realize that to a certain degree, you have to take these rankings with a grain of salt, but it is still good publicity and good statistical information for Madison):

Ten Cities For Job Growth In 2009 - Forbes.com

[Bo]

Rankings like this are a double-edged sword. When I lived in Madison, one year it was ranked the best mid-sized city in America by Money magazine. That brought a lot of newcomers and drove housing prices up. I could imagine this having a similar effect.

[Dairylander]

I cringe every time we make some top ten list.
The only thing I hate about Madison is the growing traffic and sprawl.
This type of publicity brings in the carpetbaggers.

[Milwaukee City]

The only thing I hate about Madison is the growing traffic and sprawl.

Sprawl, economically is a great thing. Larger tax base, more people to contribute to local area charities, more people that will patronize local area business and events helping organizations raise the capital needed for such things as major Broadway play or nationally recognized symphony. If you don't like sprawl just don't live in a "sprawling" area. I thought Madison liked diversity? more people means more ethnic backgrounds as well. There is a reason Ravinia Festival is able to attract national acts every weekend is because they have the attendance to support it and donate to such organizations, to accomplish such things you need to have a population to support it. I say the bigger Madison gets, the better Madison will get.

[Harpoon]

Hopefully this bodes well for the 115 people that were canned over at Marshall Erdman earlier this week.

[Drover]

How the hell would they know? 2009 is barely a week old.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by Drover

How the hell would they know? 2009 is barely a week old.

Projections.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by EnjoyEP

Projections.

Based on what? A crystal ball?

I stopped putting stock in Forbes rankings years ago when it occurred to me that most of the criteria they use are completely arbitrary, thoroughly subjective, and frequently asinine.

[Nique]

I was surprised to hear it; as a young professional with a B.A. I have always found Madison to be a challenging place to find employment. It seems like the only major employers are Epic, AmFam, and the University.

It should also be noted that they highlighted the public sector (read: UW) jobs as a big draw. But at the moment there's a hiring freeze at the University. So the single biggest source of employment in the area is nearly nonexistent at the moment...

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by Drover

Based on what? A crystal ball?

Well, I imagine things they cited like the unemployment rankings, new employers into the area, etc.

Originally Posted by Drover

I stopped putting stock in Forbes rankings years ago when it occurred to me that most of the criteria they use are completely arbitrary, thoroughly subjective, and frequently asinine.

That's fine I guess, I even caveated posting this that sure, of course these are subjective and the like.

But I don't quite get all of the hostility from posters here in this thread in having some actual good publicity for Madison! Whether in "reality" (which no one obviously knows for sure) Madison is #1, #5, or #12, having such positive factors going for it surely isn't such a bad thing.