The national capital region boasts the strongest economy of all the major cities in the Northeast, according to new rankings released today. The survey, conducted by Inc. magazine ranked the Washington region as the 13th best large city for conducting business in the country. The magazine categorized a large city as an economy with employment of above 450,000 jobs.
While cities like New York, Boston and Philadelphia struggled to add jobs, Washington over the last decade has seen a steady increase in the number of people working in the area.
Contributing editor Joel Kotkin said the region benefits from increased spending related to national defense.
“George Bush has been very good for the Washington area,” he said. “Osama bin Laden was very good for the Washington community, in a weird way.”
Kotkin said unlike a city such as New York, the Washington region is insulated from mass job cuts. For example, Citigroup recently announced it will lay off 10,000 people in New York.
The federal government, on the other hand, rarely cuts workers and keeps most departments in the region.
“It’s not like the FBI is going to move its operation to Wichita,” Kotkin said.
Kotkin said as the Iraq war loses popularity and with Democrats in control of Congress, job growth in the region could slow.
“If as we suspect war spending will begin to decline, [the economy] will probably slow down,” he said. “This spending has always been a big boost for Washington.”
