Newsweek/Daily Beast rank Michigan No. 1 for job creation potential.

Posted on August 26, 2011

Newsweek and its affiliate web site The Daily Beast, has just named Michigan as No. 1 on the list for booming states for business.

To find the 20 best states in America for job growth the publication used three factors. First, a new poll and index from Gallup, which asked more than 100,000 employed people whether their companies are expanding or contracting, and provides an index score from the difference between the two; second, the change in seasonally adjusted unemployment rates, from the annual average for 2010 to the annual average to date, with data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; finally, each state’s 2010 average annual income, also with BLS data. Using z-scores (a measure of each state’s performance relative to the mean), each factor was equally weighted. The first two data sets examine opinions on job creation and raw unemployment numbers, while the third takes into account how well, in general, jobs in each state tend to pay.

The result is a ranking of the states where, despite the recession, job growth is actually happening.