Economic crosscurrents are buffeting the states as they battle for business and jobs.
CNBC’s annual competitiveness study is scoring all 50 states on how they are navigating worker shortages, interest rates and inflation, and raging culture wars. Workforce is the most important category in 2023, followed by Infrastructure, Economy, and Life, Health & Inclusion. In just one year, interest rates have risen by the most since the 1980s. A possible recession is looming even as the government is funneling billions of dollars into a handful of key industries. Workers are in painfully short supply, but some states are shunning certain workers, pushing back against"wokeness."America's Top States for BusinessThe 16th edition of the annual CNBC study, coming in July, scores all 50 states in ten categories of competitiveness.
scores the states based on the criteria they use to sell themselves to business. So it's built for whatever the economy can dish out.This year, that's a smorgasbord of factors that often seem to be at odds with each other.Despite policymakers' best efforts to slow the economy and rein in inflation by raising interest rates, companies are still