U.S. competitiveness among global economies suffered after the 2008 global economic crisis. Four years after the crisis, the U.S. slipped in the World Economic Forum's annual competitiveness ranking. This year it's back up a bit: The U.S. rose to fifth position overall from seventh last year, in the forum's latest survey, which was released Wednesday.
Here's what the survey says about the U.S., the world's largest economy:
"Overall, many structural features continue to make the US economy extremely productive. U.S. companies are highly sophisticated and innovative, supported by an excellent university system that collaborates admirably with the business sector in R&D. Combined with flexible labor markets and the scale opportunities afforded by the sheer size of its domestic economy — the largest in the world by far — these qualities continue to make the United States very competitive.
"On the other hand, some weaknesses in particular areas remain. Although the assessment of institutions improves this year, the business community continues to be rather critical, with trust in politicians still somewhat weak (50th), concerns about the government's ability to maintain arms-length relationships with the private sector (54th), and a general perception that the government spends its resources relatively wastefully (76th). The macroeconomic environment continues to be the country's greatest area of weakness (117th), although the deficit is narrowing for the first time since the onset of the financial crisis."