SAN ANTONIO – [May 8, 2008] – Worldwide ERC®, the association for workforce mobility, and Primacy Relocation® announced that Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Omaha/Council Bluffs, Nebraska/Iowa; and Rockingham County/Stafford County, New Hampshire are 2008’s Best Cities for Relocating Families™ among large, medium and small U.S. metropolitan areas. The two organizations worked with Bert Sperling of Sperling’s BestPlaces to rate cities based on those factors – short-term and long-term – that determine the likelihood of a successful relocation. [complete list at end of document]
“This study is a great indicator for our two most important customers – our clients and their transferees,” said Michelle Vallejo, SCRP, GMS, President of Primacy, The Americas. “We have seen a lot of movement within the list through the years, and applaud those cities that have moved to the top in 2008.”
Conducted each spring, this is the fourth year Primacy and Worldwide ERC have partnered on the study. This year’s city size categories of large, medium and small used updated population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which adjusted the category sizes to 1.3 million and above, 600,000 – 1.3 million, and 360,000 – 600,000, respectively. Additionally, the 2008 study placed a special emphasis on both the housing market and economy, which continue to impact the relocation industry and an employer’s ability to transfer employees.
“Our members know that there are many factors that lead to a successful relocation,” said Cris Collie, CAE, Chief Executive Officer of Worldwide ERC. “Quality of life issues are increasingly important to transferees, and the employers who move them are recognizing those requirements. Being able to meet the needs of the entire family will be increasingly critical as the labor market grows tighter.”
Several new categories were added to this year’s rankings, including recent job growth for 2007, percentage of nearby top-ranked colleges, average in-state tuition for four-year public colleges, percentage of population growth since 2000, amount of pediatricians per 100,000 population, and separate sales and income tax categories. Another new category is the green living index, which measures environmental incentives and policies, the availability of biofuel, wind power generation, and the amount of energy-efficient buildings.
Worldwide ERC and Primacy announced the results of the survey at the National Relocation Conference in San Antonio. Full results of the survey are available at www.primacy.com.
Worldwide ERC® networks workforce mobility professionals and HR innovators, and is the recognized industry authority on relocation and international assignments in the U.S. and major global traffic areas. Worldwide ERC is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in Belgium, Brussels and Shanghai, China; and can be reached at 703.842.3000 or www.WorldwideERC.org.
Sperling's BestPlaces puts facts about cities and living in the hands of the public, so they can make better decisions about best places to live, work, retire, play, or relocate.
Primacy Relocation is one of the top third-party employee relocation providers in the world, and is the largest to focus all technology and resources solely on relocation and global assignment (expatriate) management. Primacy administers programs for employers throughout the Americas, EMEA and Asia regions. Core services include home sales, destination services, household goods move management, and overall program administration. In addition to its Memphis headquarters, Primacy has offices in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Omaha, Sacramento and Washington D.C. (Government Services), as well as Amsterdam, Basel, Beijing, Dalian, Fuzhou, Geneva, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Lausanne, London, Montréal, Munich, Paris, Quanzhou, Shanghai, Xiamen and Zurich. Primacy is online, in nine languages, at primacy.com.