New Jersey fell five spots in CNBC’s 2025 Top States for Business ranking, finishing 30th overall in annual rankings announced Thursday morning.
While New Jersey continued to perform well in weighted areas like quality of life (3rd), education (7th) and access to capital (11th), it continued to struggle mightily in business friendliness (49th) and cost of doing business (38th).
In 2023, New Jersey had risen to No. 19 on the list, climbing 23 places from the previous year.
New Jersey also finished lower against neighboring states of New York (No. 23) and Pennsylvania (No. 17), which continues on a path of lowering its top corporate tax rate to 4.99%, while the Garden State has the highest top corporate tax rate in the nation, by far, at 11.5%.
One challenging area for New Jersey was economy, where it ranked 31st, falling 14 places from 2024.
At the same time, New Jersey saw improvement in infrastructure (21st, up 9 spots from 2024) and technology and innovation (16th, up 10 spots from 2024).
“Like many of the states in this national ranking, New Jersey has much to be proud of and concerned with as it relates to business," said NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka. "We continue to be encouraged by our rankings in more foundational metrics like quality of life and education. We also saw good improvements in technology and innovation and infrastructure.
“What’s most frustrating, however, is the continuation of our bottom-of-the-pack ranking for business friendliness and non-competitive rankings for both cost of doing business and cost of living.
"This reaffirms that our exceedingly high businesses taxes, income taxes, property taxes and our extreme regulatory burdens do indeed have consequences both for our national business reputation and for our overall decline in Fortune 500 companies.
“As stated in great detail in our 2025 Blueprint for a Competitive New Jersey, we have the ability to make considerable improvements in our approach to business. We just need to have the will and the appetite for it and to comprehensively work toward policies that will make us a more competitive destination for job creators. We are looking to our next Governor to take bold steps to help us get there.”
The annual CNBC Top States for Business report ranks states in 10 different categories, involving 135 metrics. This year, according to CNBC Special Correspondent Scott Cohn, the impact of tariffs on states was a more heavily weighted metric, as was insurance costs.
The states ranking highest in CNBC’s Top 10 for 2025 includes:
- North Carolina
- Texas
- Florida
- Virginia
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Georgia
- Tennessee
- Indiana
- Minnesota
The states ranking the lowest in 2025 includes:
41. Arkansas
42. Nevada
43. Maine
44. New Mexico
45. Mississippi
46. Louisiana (tied)
46. Rhode Island (tied)
48. Montana
49. Hawaii
50. Alaska
To see the full CNBC Top 10 States for Business report, click here.
