Some North Carolinians are celebrating that the state’s business climate was recently ranked No. 3 in the nation by CNBC1 – and they should.
The state improved from a rank of 9th in CNBC’s 2018 rankings.2
Of course, North Carolina is no stranger to top rankings Forbes ranked North Carolina the top state for business in 2018.3 And the state took the top spot in Site Selection Magazine’s rankings for 10 out of 12 years, from 2001-2012.4
But when we compare North Carolina’s ranking by CNBC with that of No. 1-ranked Virginia, the clear difference is education: Virginia ranked 1st in the nation in both the education and workforce categories this year, while North Carolina ranked 21st in education and 7th in workforce.
CNBC made clear why it was no accident Amazon chose Arlington, VA, for its $5 billion second headquarters:
“The state has the nation’s best workforce, including the fourth-highest concentration of science, technology, education and math (STEM) workers. Strong school test scores, small class sizes and a wealth of colleges and universities make Virginia’s education system the best in the nation. And with Virginia Tech… announcing plans to build a new campus adjacent to Amazon’s HQ2 focused on innovation, things could get even better.”5
Explaining its metrics, CNBC says companies want both an educated pool of workers and a great place for families:
“Education and business go hand in hand…. Higher education institutions offer companies a source to recruit new talent, as well as a partner in research and development. We consider the number of higher education institutions in each state as well as long-term trends in state support for higher education.6 We look at several measures of K-12 education including test scores, class size and spending, and we look at technology infrastructure in the schools. We also look at life-long learning opportunities in each state.”
For CNBC, North Carolina doesn’t measure up to its neighbor to the north in that category.
When it comes to workforce preparedness, CNBC considers the education levels of a state’s workers:
“We rate states based on the educational attainment of their workforce, the number of available employees, and net migration of college-educated workers. We consider each state’s concentration of STEM … workers, increasingly in demand by business…. We look at the relative success of each state’s worker training programs in placing their participants in jobs. We also consider union membership and the states’ right-to-work laws.”7
Yes, North Carolina is improving. The state ranked 37th in education and 9th in workforce preparedness in CNBC’s 2018 rankings.8
And recent adoption of an attainment goal – 2 million workers with a degree or high-quality certificate by 2030 – after the work of the myFutureNC Commission should further improve our standing.
But to return to the very top, we need to keep going.
1https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/these-are-americas-top-states-for-business-in-2019.html.
2https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/10/americas-top-states-for-business-2018.html.
3https://www.forbes.com/places/nc/
4https://siteselection.com/issues/2012/nov/top-business-climates.cfm.
5https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/americas-top-states-for-business-2019.html.
6https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2019/06/wws-public-universities/.
7https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/08/how-cnbc-chose-americas-top-states-for-business-in-2019.html.
8https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/10/americas-top-states-for-business-2018.html.
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