New Jersey Near Last Among America’s Top States For Business: CNBC

NEW JERSEY — A subpar economy, a not-so-friendly business climate and a high cost of living are some of the reasons why the Garden State plummeted to No. 42 in America’s Top States for Business in 2022, the business and financial news network CNBC’s annual competitiveness ranking said.

Last year, New Jersey ranked 26th in the competitiveness rankings, weighted according to the frequency states use attributes such as the strength of the workforce, the state of infrastructure development and the cost of doing business as selling points in their economic development materials, CNBC said.

In all, CNBC measured how well the states performed across 88 metrics in 10 categories. For the first time, child-care resources and support for emerging industries such as cryptocurrency and cannabis were included in the competitiveness rankings. States can earn a total of 2,500 points. New Jersey accumulated 1,179 points, CNBC said.

Below, find the number of points and grades that the Garden State earned in some of CNBC's criteria:

• Workforce: 223 points, C+ letter grade
• Infrastructure: 176 points, D+ letter grade
• Cost of doing business: 109 points, D+ letter grade
• Economy: 81 points, F letter grade
• Life, health and inclusion: 232 points, B letter grade
• Technology and innovation: 131 points, C+ letter grade
• Business friendliness: 59 points, F letter grade
• Education: 127 points, A+ letter grade
• Access to capital: 30 points, C+ letter grade
• Cost of living: 11 points, F letter grade

North Carolina topped the ranking, moving up from No. 2 last year. CNBC noted that’s partly because "political leaders in the Tar Heel State keep managing to put partisanship aside to build the nation’s strongest economy."

Rounding out the top five were Washington, Virginia, Colorado and Texas.

To determine how well the states performed, CNBC relied on publicly available federal data, but also commissioned reports from real estate and labor market data collection firms. State economic development and financial data from each state were also used. For more, read the full methodology.

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