CNBC’s annual enterprise rankings are in, and North Carolina wins the prize for America’s greatest state for enterprise in 2023. It is the second straight 12 months the Tar Heel State has earned the highest spot.
The examine measures all 50 states throughout ten classes of competitiveness, together with workforce, infrastructure, healthcare, the price of doing enterprise, and the price of residing.
North Carolina’s success at attracting and retaining expertise throughout varied industries was an enormous think about its excessive rating.
“Firms in determined want of expert staff are going the place the individuals are, and individuals are going to North Carolina,” mentioned CNBC Particular Correspondent Scott Cohn. “The state’s well-balanced economic system is dealing with the expansion nicely.”
North Carolina has additionally attracted a bucketload of investments from companies.
In 2023, Bosch made a $130 million funding within the state to broaden its energy device manufacturing facility. Mobile therapeutics firm ProKidney invested $458 million in a biomanufacturing facility in Greensboro.
Apple not too long ago filed paperwork to construct a $1 billion facility in Analysis Triangle Park. It might be the corporate’s first company hub on the East Coast.
Researchers additionally identified that North Carolina is killing it in profession training.
“You’ve one of the vital aggressive neighborhood faculty programs in America as nicely in North Carolina, that’s attuned to the wants of their business,” mentioned Josh Wright, an govt vice chairman with labor market analytics agency Lightcast, which labored with CNBC on the examine.
Struggles with well being care and crime
However North Carolina additionally has its share of issues, which may very well be unhealthy for enterprise if not addressed.
In keeping with FBI information, violent crime surged in NC in 2022. The state additionally ranks close to the underside in well being care, with low public well being funding and many voters with out medical health insurance.
Rising political turmoil may additionally injury the state’s standing. North Carolina’s Democratic Governor, Roy Cooper and Republican legislators have battled on a number of key points. And this week, state Rep. Tricia Cotham modified her political affiliation from Democrat to Republican, weakening Cooper’s veto energy.
Different highs and lows
Virginia got here in second place on CNBC’s best-states-for-business listing. Tennesee was third, and Georgia was fourth.
The worst state for enterprise? Alaska. Final 12 months, Alaska’s GDP dropped by 2.4%, with oil manufacturing plummeting to Nineteen Seventies ranges. In the meantime, the state ranks third as the costliest to do enterprise — simply behind Hawaii and Massachusetts.