New York, California Top Job-Loss List

New York won the dubious honor of ranking last among the 50 U.S. states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico in the battle to retain companies and jobs, while California ranked second-to-last in the five-year study by Dun & Bradstreet. The study found that 56,000 businesses moved across state lines between 1991 and 1995, with New York and California each suffering a net loss of more than 3,000 companies and more than 75,000 jobs. The big difference: California suffered its greatest job loss in 1991 and has rebounded; New York suffered its greatest loss in 1995. Aided by a relatively low cost of doing business, five Southeast states were the big job winners, with Georgia leading the pack.