Despite the constant stream of news about a pending national economic crisis, Richmond has once again racked up a great pro-business accolade.

Last week, Forbes magazine named Richmond the seventh best city in the United States for business and careers, which is a seven-position jump in the rankings from last year's inclusion at 14th place. Greater Richmond has been included as a top 15 location on the Forbes list four out of the last five years.

The Forbes rankings cover the 200 largest metro areas and are based on job and income growth, business and living costs, crime, educational attainment, presence of four-year colleges and cultural and recreational opportunities.

Sitting ahead of Richmond in the standings, counting down from the top of the list, are Raleigh, N.C.; Boise, Idaho; Fort Collins, Colo.; Des Moines, Iowa; Lexington, Kent. and Atlanta, Ga. Finishing out the top ten list after Richmond are Olympia, Wash.; Spokane, Wash. and Knoxville, Tenn. For the third year in a row, the Southeast is home to half of the top 10.

According to the Greater Richmond Partnership, the Richmond region's collaborative economic development and business recruitment engine, Richmond business costs are 10 percent below the national average and 28 percent of the area's labor pool has a college degree, compared to 25 percent at the national level.

The Forbes report isn't the only good beusiness news coming out of the Richmond, however. The new ranking comes on the heels of a local report from Business First Greater Richmond claiming that 40 percent of Richmond businesses have plans to expand in the near future.

After interviewing more than 600 local firms over the past 18 months, the Business First Greater Richmond program reported that Richmond businesses plan on creating more than 2,200 new jobs in the near future.

Business First Greater Richmond is a program supported by the Greater Richmond Partnership. For the study, economic development teams in the City of Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico joined teams of trained volunteers from the business community to conduct the face-to-face interviews, which typically lasted from 30 to 60 minutes.

Though all of this recent news sounds great for the area, some may wonder if the reports are legitimate when juxtaposed with so many stories of economic doom and gloom coming from the national media.

Absolutely, says Greg Wingfield, president and CEO of the Greater Richmond Partnership. Though talk of a major national recession is on the rise, Wingfield said his organization is closely monitoring the economic forecast but believes local businesses will go through will their expansion plans.

"It's not just one company," he said. "It's a whole series of companies that we interviewed over the course of the last 18 months that are adding five people here or 10 people there becasue in order to continue to grow their businesses they are going to have to take on more personnel. I think those numbers, plus or minus 5 to 7 percent, are still accurate."

Wingfield added that over the past several decades, Richmond has typically been an economically safe "port in the storm" in regards to past recessions.

"I've been in the business 33 years and through a number of recessions and Richmond still continues even in a recession to grow or at least remain stable," he said. "Part of that is the diversification of its economy and the fact that we are not wedded to one industry type. We are not all about high tech or all about automobile manufacturing."

Wingfield said no more than 18 percent of Greater Richmond's employment base is in any single local employment category, be it manufacturing, the service industry, state government or others.

"That gives us stability so that when a recession rolls through, it really manages the rolling of the economy," he said. "Our unemployment rate will go up a little bit. It is at 4 percent right now but I don't think where we are today and what I have seen in terms of projections that we are going to have a worse time. We may be in a slower growth mode but I still think we will experience moderate growth rather than strong growth."

Regarding the Forbes ranking, Wingfield said it simply validates that Richmond is a good place to do business and that any business looking to weather the upcoming storm should seriously consider the area.

"Why not relocate to or expand in a location that you know is a proven entity in the top ten business locations in the country. Particularly for those companies that are looking to try to reposition themselves if they are in the finance industry or in the mortgage industry, why not use this downtime to lower your costs and come to an area that has a proven track record and a positive business climate and retool in the greater Richmond area."