• By Todd Luck
• Posted Friday, July 15, 2022

North Carolina is CNBC’s Top State for Business in 2022

North Carolina is the Top State for Business in 2022, according to CNBC.

The full article can be viewed here. According to the business news network:

“The Tar Heel State has always been a contender in CNBC’s annual competitiveness rankings, rarely finishing outside the top 10 since the study began in 2007. The state finished a close second last year. But 2022 is the first year it has been able to climb to the top.

What made the difference this year? For one thing, state leaders keep managing to put aside their very deep political divisions to boost business and the economy.”

Some of the reasons CNBC listed for picking the Tar Heel state:

• Gov. Roy Cooper working across party lines with State Senate President Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore for an agreement with Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer VinFast to build a $2 billion factory in the state. They also worked on a deal last year with Apple to build its first East Coast hub in the Research Triangle region.
• The state’s economic growth of 6.7% last year and job growth of 3.6% were among the strongest in the nation.
• CNBC ranked North Carolina 12th in the nation for its Workforce and 5th in the nation for Technology and Innovation.
• The state ranked second in the nation in access to capital with both Bank of America and Truist Financial based in Charlotte, which are the nation’s second and sixth-largest banks.
• North Carolina companies also attracted some $3.5 billion in venture capital investments last year, the sixth highest in the country.