With a solid economy and a world-class workforce, North Carolina has been named America’s Top State for Business in 2025.
“This confirms what we have known for a long time – that North Carolina is the best state in the country for business,” said Governor Josh Stein. “Our people, state’s business climate, top research universities and excellent community college system, infrastructure, and high quality of life help both companies and workers thrive.”
Since taking office in January, Stein has announced business expansions or new projects that will yield nearly $17 billion of new capital investment in North Carolina and create more than 20,000 new, good-paying jobs. North Carolina is also a growing leader in the clean energy economy, with more than 100,000 people employed in the sector.
The state’s success is largely attributed to its well-rounded and talented workforce– America’s fourth-best, according to CNBC. North Carolina finishes in the top tier both for science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, employees, and for its pipeline of vocational and career-educated workers.
“North Carolina offers the ideal combination of talent, infrastructure, and forward-thinking leadership to support our mission to reshape aviation,” said Tom O’Leary, CEO and co-founder of JetZero, an aviation startup manufacturing fuel-efficient airliners, which announced June 12 that it will build its first factory, with 14,500 jobs, in Greensboro.
While it’s well-established that North Carolina is friendly to businesses, Gov. Stein is working to make North Carolina friendlier to workers as well. To combat North Carolina’s child care crisis, the Governor launched a Task Force on Child Care and Early Education, which seeks to make high-quality child care more accessible, affordable, and sustainable. Stein has also proposed a new tax credit to put more money in the pockets of working families.
North Carolina captured top honors in the annual CNBC rankings in 2022 and 2023, and it was runner-up in 2021 and 2024 — missing the top spot last year to Virginia, which slips this year to its lowest position since 2018. Virginia’s drop has been attributed to Trump’s federal job cuts, which have increased the state’s unemployment rate and slowed its economy.
Trump’s policies are threatening North Carolina as well. The state is still in the early stages of recovery from Hurricane Helene, which caused nearly $60 billion in damage in North Carolina alone. Ongoing recovery efforts could be hampered by Trump’s plans to dismantle FEMA, a move that Stein has warned against.
North Carolina could also be hit hard by Trump’s tariffs. More than 20% of North Carolina’s GDP in 2024 came from international trade in goods. That leaves the state vulnerable to the impact of higher tariffs, which Stein said can already be seen in a recent reduction in traffic at the state’s biggest port in Wilmington.
And that’s not all. The Medicaid cuts in Trump’s signature tax-and-spending bill could cost the state as much as $32 billion and cause more than 600,000 North Carolinians to lose their health insurance.
“It’s a real concern. This bill will result in real harm to North Carolina, harm to people and health care,” Stein said. “You cannot do that and not have human suffering. We have a lot of rural hospitals, and those are where uninsured people will predominantly live, and [those hospitals] will be the ones at risk of closing. We are very concerned,” Stein added.
He pointed to the bipartisan success achieved in North Carolina two years ago when the state expanded Medicaid coverage to 660,000 people. “Now we have to come together to defend Medicaid,” Stein said.
