North Carolina regains top spot on CNBC's list of best states to do business

North Carolina has retaken a key title belt in the no-holds-barred arena of economic development.

Finance network CNBC on Thursday named the Tar Heel State the best state to do business in the latest edition of its influential annual rankings. It’s the sixth year in a row the state has ranked among the top three. Texas ranked second and Florida ranked third.

The 2025 ranking is an improvement from 2024, when the state came in second. Virginia, which topped the rankings in 2024, fell to fourth in this year’s rankings. In 2019, North Carolina ranked third; in 2021, the state ranked second; in both 2022 and 2023 North Carolina ranked first.

CNBC considers more than 100 metrics in 10 categories of competitiveness in determining its rankings. North Carolina ranked fourth in workforce, third in overall economy, fourth in business friendliness, 11th in infrastructure and 13th in technology and innovation. Companies consistently cite the state’s relative affordability, talent pool, quality of life, workforce development programs and business-friendly regulations as reasons for expanding in the state.

"The main reason why we're such an attractive place is our people," North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein told WRAL News in an interview Thursday. "We have the best people. [They're] hard-working. They have all the skills in the world that they need. We have engineers, we have scientists, we have also technicians — people who can do the technical work. So we can do the development and we can do the manufacturing."

Since Stein took office in January, the state has attracted companies that have committed almost 24,700 jobs and $18.7 billion in new investment. That’s up from about 9,300 jobs and $8.1 billion committed at this time last year, according to the state Department of Commerce.

The CNBC rankings provide bragging rights for the top states, giving economic developers sales-pitch ammunition for luring companies to the state. But the state’s corporate recruiters aren’t resting on their laurels, North Carolina Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley said.

"We get to celebrate a ranking like this for about one day, and then it's back to work, because every other state wants what we've got, which is to be a very attractive place for business investment, for growth, and ultimately for the creation of high paying jobs," Lilley told WRAL News.

He said investing in workforce development, infrastructure and offering competitive economic incentives is critical to competing with other states for expanding companies. "The other states that we're competing against, they see what we're doing. They're copying that," Lilley said. "We want to take the best ideas from around the world, inject them into our workforce infrastructure and our incentives program so that we continue to create those great-paying jobs."

The state's biggest trophy so far this year: JetZero, a California aircraft manufacturer with ambitious plans to build futuristic, efficient, all-wing planes, which plans a $4.72 billion factory in Greensboro, where it plans to create more than 14,500 high-paying jobs. Other wins include contract manufacturer Jabil Inc., which last month announced plans to add 1,200 jobs in Rowan County; and a series of expansions involving finance companies.

The incoming jobs have helped keep the state’s fast-growing population employed. The state’s unemployment rate was 3.7% in June, lower than the national average of 4.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics. North Carolina’s unemployment rate has been in line or below the national rate for most of the past two years.

Stein credited the state’s community colleges with helping develop workers for growing companies in the state. “Our community colleges are very responsive to the needs of business in their area,” he said.

Aviation companies have been drawn to Greensboro, for instance, due in part to training available through Guilford Technical Community College. The college has been expanding its aviation program, where it offers courses in aerospace manufacturing, engineering, assembly and repair, among other disciplines. It’s planning a multimillion-dollar expansion that could grow its headcount by about 40% when it’s complete in 2027. Community colleges in Wake and Johnston counties, meanwhile, have ramped up courses to serve growing biotechnology companies in the Triangle.

“Our local community colleges are tied in very tightly with what the needs are of local business so that the business wins [and] the people win,” Stein said. “The people are getting the skills and knowledge they need in order to translate it into a good paying job.”

Stein said the continued investment in public education is critical to ensuring more jobs come. “That's investing in our people, and that's investing in our future,” he said.

CNBC reported that federal budget cuts, tariffs and hurricane recovery efforts could threaten the state’s No. 1 ranking. Stain said he’s concerned about those issues but noted that many of them affect other states, too.

North Carolina's economic development strategy has focused in part on industries or companies that benefit from federal legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act, which encouraged domestic manufacturing of clean-energy products and semiconductors. President Donald Trump has been working to roll back some of those laws. Lilley said the state can defend against uncertainty over federal funding by focusing on high-growth industries.

“We continue to recruit very well in clean energy, very well in semiconductors, and very well in the other industries that we have already built on — and continue to build on — like aerospace, life sciences, biotechnology, aerospace,” Lilley said.