West Virginia has made a significant jump in CNBC’s annual rankings for the best states to do business. The Mountain State jumped from 46th a year ago to 40th.
The business network said the “study measures all 50 states across 10 categories of competitiveness. The methodology “assigns weight to each category based on how frequently states cite it as a selling point.”
The idea, according to CNBC, “is to measure the states based on the criteria they use to pitch themselves to business.”
West Virginia’s strongest category was “cost of doing business.” The state ranked third, behind only Oklahoma and Ohio. West Virginia’s ranking is down from a high of first last year.
West Virginia took a huge jump in the category of “business friendly,” rising all the way from 49th last year to 17th for 2024. The ranking for the overall economy also shot up, from 48th a year ago to 28th this year.
The survey also quantified some of the usual trouble spots for the state. Infrastructure fell from 41st last year to 45th. The state did climb out of last place among the states in the workforce category, but only three spots to 47th. That reflects the state’s ongoing challenges of having enough trained and drug-free workers to meet demand.
Technology and innovation remain a trouble spot for business here. CNBC’s ranking for West Virginia held at 47th from the previous year. West Virginia landed in the middle of the pack in “quality of life” at 31st, down four spots from 2023.
Here are some other notes from the survey:
Virginia was at the top of CNBC’s competitiveness ranking for the sixth time, and the third time in the last five years. The Commonwealth edged out last year’s winner, North Carolina, which fell to second.
Texas, Georgia and Florida round out the top five. Alabama was the most improved state, surging 22 places to number twenty overall. Alabama benefited from “a big increase in net migration and better performance of worker training programs.”
Unfortunately, West Virginia’s business ranking, although improved, is still lower than our neighboring states. Ohio came in at 7, Pennsylvania at 17, Kentucky landed at 27th, and Maryland came in at number 31.
Now, to the bottom of the rankings.
No, Mississippi was not 50th, but it is 49th. The unfortunate distinction of last place on the CNBC business competitiveness belongs to Hawaii. The network report it’s ranking is “dragged down by its off-the-charts costs, including childcare, and rising climate risks.”
But back to West Virginia.
I looked at the CNBC rankings back to 2007 and the previous high for our state was 44th (in 2007 and 2022). Typically, West Virginia ranked 47th or 48th. Yes, it would always be better to have a higher ranking, but the data show progress and it is good to get out of the bottom ten.