Forbes ranks Anniston area as among worst places for business and careers

Forbes magazine recently ranked the Anniston, Oxford, Jacksonville metropolitan  area’s business environment six spots from the bottom among the 184 smallest metropolitan areas in the U.S. The ranking was part of Forbes' annual Best Places for Business and Careers.
Forbes had a separate list for the 200 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., which ranged from the size of New York to Birmingham. Forbes' determination of large metropolitan areas and small metropolitan areas was based on U.S. Census Bureau designations.
The metro areas’ boundaries follow county lines, but tend to be named for their largest cities. Thus, the Anniston-Oxford-Jacksonville metro area and Calhoun County are essentially the same thing.
To determine the rankings, Forbes considered 12 metrics related to job growth, costs of living and doing business, income growth over the past five years, college and high school educational attainment and projected economic growth through 2016. Forbes also factored in net migration patterns in the last five years and cultural and recreational opportunities. The number of highly ranked colleges in an area was also factored into the rankings.
According to the ranking, Calhoun County was 179th out of 184, with Madera, Calif., being the next-worst place for business on the list.
Calhoun County also ranked last among the seven small metro areas in Alabama. Auburn fared the best among Alabama's small metros, ranking 10th on the list. Gadsden also did poorly, ranking 152nd out of all the small metros in the U.S.