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July 11, 2024

Connecticut drops 1 spot in CNBC’s 2024 Top States for Business list

MARK PAZNIOKAS / CTMIRROR.ORG The state Capitol.
By David Krechevsky

Connecticut remained in the bottom half of CNBC’s annual ranking of the best states in which to do business for this year, in part because it has become less business friendly.

The state dropped one spot to No. 32 in CNBC’s list of “America’s Top States For Business 2024,” which was released Thursday. The state ranked 31st last year.

The cable news channel ranks each state in 10 categories, ranging from education and infrastructure to quality of life and the cost of doing business. 

Connecticut actually improved in six of the 10 categories, with the biggest improvements seen in education, where it ranked fourth this year compared to 13th last year; access to capital (22nd this year, up from 27th last year); infrastructure (29th this year, 33rd last year); and economy (39th this year, 42nd last year). Two other categories, cost of doing business and cost of living, remained unchanged.

The biggest movement in any category, however, was for “business friendliness,” which saw the state drop from 16th last year to 39th this year.

In a LinkedIn post Thursday, Connecticut Business & Industry Association President and CEO Chris DiPentima said he understands why the state is now considered less business friendly.

“The big decline in Connecticut’s business-friendliness rank largely reflects a series of recent policy decisions imposing or expanding costly workplace mandates,” he wrote, “coupled with inaction on a transformative, bipartisan bill giving hundreds of thousands of small business employees access to quality, affordable healthcare.”

He added that, while it was good to see CNBC award the state top 10 rankings for education (4th) and quality of life (9th), “we can — and must — do more to lower the state’s high cost of living and make it much easier and less costly to start and run a business here.”

Virginia was the top-ranked state overall in CNBC’s list this year, after being ranked second last year. North Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Florida rounded out the top five.

The lowest-rated states this year were Hawaii at 50th, down from 47th last year, followed by Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana and Montana.

The state rated the most business friendly was North Dakota, which ranked 34th overall in the list, while New York was rated the least business friendly. The Empire State ranked 22nd overall.

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