(The Center Square) – Virginia dropped from first to fourth place in CNBC’s 2025 Top States for Business rankings, a report that evaluates states on economic strength, workforce, infrastructure and cost of doing business.
The CNBC Top States for Business rankings are released annually and are often used by states to attract businesses and measure economic competitiveness. This year’s rankings included a new metric assessing states’ exposure to tariffs and reductions in federal employment. Virginia, which has the second-highest concentration of federal workers in the country, was affected by this factor in the 2025 report.
“CNBC fails to recognize that our private sector growth has been at record levels,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said. He added that the federal workforce in Virginia is “heavily weighted to Defense and National Security, which are getting more funding, not less.”
Youngkin described Virginia as having “$121 billion in business investment committed and record job growth, with 270,000 more Virginians working and roughly 200,000 open and unfilled jobs.” He also noted Virginia’s “AAA bond rating was just reaffirmed while neighbors like Maryland and DC were downgraded.”
Democrats took the opportunity to play politics with the latest rankings.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Abigail Spanberger said Virginia’s drop is “in part due to Donald Trump’s attacks on Virginia jobs and the Youngkin-Sears Administration’s refusal to stand up to him.”
She said the ranking shows “Virginia needs a governor who will build a more resilient economy, expand our workforce, and protect workers and small businesses in the face of ongoing threats from Trump’s Washington.”
State Sen. Jennifer Boysko said, “Virginia used to be #1. Now we’ve fallen to #4 in the CNBC business rankings all while Winsome Earle-Sears play politics instead of investing in workers, families, and innovation.”
Jay Jones, a Democratic candidate for attorney general, linked the ranking drop to Attorney General Jason Miyares, describing it as “a direct result of federal job cuts” that Miyares “did nothing to stop.”
Jones said Miyares “has turned the Attorney General’s office into Donald Trump’s personal law firm at the expense of our families, livelihoods, and small businesses” and “has failed to protect the over 300,000 Virginians who are employed by the federal government.”
North Carolina and Texas ranked first and second in CNBC’s 2025 report.
Maryland ranked 32nd, down one spot from last year, with strengths in education and technology but lower scores in cost of doing business and infrastructure. Maryland’s GDP declined by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2025, and its AAA bond rating received a negative outlook.
The latest rankings come as Virginia prepares for statewide elections in November, with races for governor, attorney general and the House of Delegates on the ballot.
