Great news for Iowa's business sector.
The state of Iowa has made the cut. CNBC ranks the Hawkeye state as one of the top four states for business in 2009. Together, the entire tri-state area, slid into the top 15.
Iowa is now known, as America's top 4th state for business. Nebraska and South Dakota, not too far behind, are at rankings 11 and 12.
Iowa rose five places, coming in at number nine, last year, but this year, it's cited as the "most improved state in the country." CNBC looked at ten categories of competitiveness, including cost of doing business, workforce, and quality of life, to come up with their rankings
All the states were compared on 40 measures of competitiveness in ten different categories, including cost of doing business, workforce, and quality of life.
Anne Westra from Sioux City Economic Development says Iowa did well in every category.
"The exciting thing is that Iowa ranked in the top 25% in eight of these ten categories, so we're obviously doing quite well."
And Joseph Wright of Siouxland Initiative isn't surprised with the progress Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota are making.
"It's not a secret...it's something we have always known...our tri-state region and the state of Iowa are great places to do business. So it didn't surprise us, it just made us want to work harder to make sure we make this place a great place for businesses to expand and stay and come."
Wright also adds that in comparison to other states, Iowa should be extremely proud of how well it's been avoiding layoffs...another reason current businesses could be thriving.