MerchantMaverick.com, the business product comparison site for small business owners, determined that the top three states on the list are Nebraska, North Dakota, and Minnesota. No Upper Midwest state ranked lower than Michigan, at number 17. While these states are different in many ways, they all share low unemployment, and governments with prudent tax and spending habits. Many even experienced positive GDP growth during the Great Recession, while other states had stagnant or shrinking GDP.
