Dallas, Texas is the ninth most populous city in the United States. The Dallas Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area is also the fifth largest metropolitan area in the United States. As one might expect, the Dallas metropolitan area has a vibrant economy and is a center for business and commerce. The Dallas metropolitan area is home to nearly forty Fortune 1000 company headquarters.
Inc. magazine has ranked the Dallas Fort Worth-Arlington area in the top fifty on its list of "Best Cities for Doing Business" in the United States in the large cities category for the last three years (2004-2006). The criteria used by Inc. "emphasizes the robustness of a region's growth". Large and significant cities such as Dallas, who have a "tangible effect on global affairs through socioeconomic, cultural, and/or political means" (Wikipedia) are ranked as "Global Cities" (sometimes referred to as world cities or world-class cities) by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC). There are three tiers of ranking in order of importance, alpha (first-tier), beta (second-tier) and gamma (third tier). Dallas is one of 11 cities in the U.S. ranked as a "World City". Dallas was ranked as a "Gamma World City", on a par with Boston, Houston, and Washington, D.C..
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dallas ranks in the top thirty on the list of cities in the United States who receive the most annual funding from the NIH.
Dallas has a high concentration of telecommunication companies and its "Telecom Corridor" is home to more than 5,700 companies and regional offices for Alcatel, AT&T, Ericsson, Fujitsu, MCI, Nokia, Nortel, Rockwell, Sprint and Verizon. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, major industries in and around Dallas include (ranked by size of workforce):
- Trade, Transportation, and Utilities
- Professional & Business Services
- Government
- Educational & Health Services
- Leisure & Hospitality
- Financial Activities
- Information
The Dallas metropolitan area is served by Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). It is the busiest airport in Texas, the third busiest airport in the world in terms of aircraft movement, and sixth in terms of passenger volume. DFW ranks eighth in the United States for for nonstop international air travel according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Some major companies in and around Dallas include:
- 7-Eleven
- AMR Corporation (the parent company of American Airlines)
- Blockbuster Video
- Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation
- CompUSA
- Dr Pepper
- Educational Products, Inc.
- Electronic Data Systems (EDS)
- ExxonMobil
- Frito Lay
- Greyhound Bus Lines
- JCPenney
- Kimberly-Clark Corporation
- Kinko's (owned by FedEx)
- Mary Kay Cosmetics
- Michael's Stores
- Neiman Marcus
- Nokia
- Perot Systems
- Pier 1 Imports
- Pizza Hut (owned by Yum! Brands, Inc.)
- Radio Shack
- Sabre Holdings, the owner of the Sabre System
- Southwest Airlines
- Texas Instruments
- Wyndham International
- Zale Corporation
Some of the major business organizations in the Dallas area include:
- The Dallas Business Association (DBA)
- The Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau
- The Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce
- The North Dallas Chamber of Commerce
The Dallas Business Journal, and the Business and Technology Section of the Dallas Morning News are excellent sources of information on business in the Dallas metropolitan area.