• "Entrepreneur" magazine ranks Phoenix as a top start-up spot - the fifth best city in the nation to start a business. The magazine also ranked the city as No. 1 among Southwestern cities for entrepreneurs. According to the magazine, "software development, construction and tourism-related enterprises, are growing, growing, growing." Cited were Arizona's skilled labor pool, the community colleges' small business development centers and easy access to markets.
  
  
• The state should begin reaping rewards from some 25 probusiness bills passed by the Arizona Legislature in 1994, Arizona Association of Industries said. For example, Arizona becomes more attractive as a site for corporate headquarters with diversified conglomerates now allowed to file consolidated state income tax returns.
  
  
• Tax incentives for military dismantling if they converted their military manufacturing operations into civilian one, has expanded this market segment. Bringing life to manufacturing, Governor Fife Symington said, goes well toward a goal of diversifying our economy. Spreading out the job base not only insulates us from market swings, but also makes us more attractive to more potential firms that will expand or relocate here. In addition, manufacturing, perhaps more than other industry, is a prime provider of spin-off and support firms. A strong manufacturing segment creates demand for other industries. And, especially among high-tech firms, a major manufacturer provides a collective energy that often results in new startups.
  
  
• High-technology firms' earnings up 389%, Profits at Arizona high-tech companies took another big leap in 1994, pushing ahead 389%. New income up at non-charted tech firms, too, for firms not included in the Business Journal's technology index. More than 1% of America's 29,073 small and mid-sized high-tech firms are now based in Arizona, with a total of 26,427 employees, according to Corporate Technology Information Services.
  
  
• The areas of some of the greatest growth are computer hardware and software and in biomedical technology.
  
  
• Scottsdale wants to recruit 8,000 or more new jobs to the city by 1998. That's on top of the additional jobs that companies already in the city will create. The Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, businesses and Scottsdale city government have formed a partnership to coordinate and fund economic development efforts. Since its founding in 1986, the partnership has helped attract more than 14,000 jobs to the city. Scottsdale's unemployment rate of 3% is the lowest among Maricopa County cities with labor forces of 50,000 and above.
  
  
• The Southwest's "can-do attitude" continues to foster success in developing the regions' high-technology industry, according to Channel magazines, a business and marketing publication for the semiconductor equipment and materials industry. In 1989 25% of the U.S.-based semiconductor production capacity was located in California. News in the Southwest is that 62% of new construction is pegged for the area from 1995 through 1998. California will get only 10%.
  
  
• According to a survey by the Phoenix accounting firm of Toback CPAs manufacturers are humming. More than 60% of the Maricopa County manufacturers said they expect demand for their products to rise during 1995. And 58.5% are forecasting increased capital expenditures.
  
  

Return to Employers In The Valley Page