Business and Industry

Unlike many other cities, Dubuque has stayed steady in business, and companies in the area are expanding their operations and hiring new workers. In 2002, the greater Dubuque area was ranked second in the nation for business retention. The newly released “Metro Business Retention Index” (published by the Brandow Company, an economic research firm) focuses on the business retention rates for the nation’s 324 metro areas. To develop the rankings, more than 10.8 million private sector firms were tracked from 1998 to 2002. A retention percentage was developed by dividing the number of surviving firms by the beginning number of firms in each area (the public sector was not included). Dubuque’s high ranking in the small metro category comes as no surprise to many who work and live here.

Recently, Dubuque scored the third-largest gain in the United States on Forbes magazine’s “Best Places for Business and Careers” list. And Dubuque moved up almost 50 spots from its 2001 position to its new rank of 40 in Forbes 2003 “Best Places” edition. According to Forbes, Dubuque’s cost of doing business is also very favorable: The city enjoys a rank of 13th out of 168 cities in the United States.

The Milken Institute, a prominent economic think tank, measured the total dollar amount of technological goods and services produced during the five-year period between 1997 and 2002. Dubuque’s high-tech ranking climbed to number one in 2003; the city ranked number 14 last year and number 18 in 2001. According to Milken, greater Dubuque’s rank is due to a high-tech growth rate that is more than 80 percent higher than the U.S. average.

With all the good things happening in Dubuque, it’s no wonder that we are quickly becoming a popular destination for new and expanding businesses across the nation.