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The basics:

• New Jersey drops five spots to No. 30 in CNBC‘s 2025 rankings
• State ranks 49th in business friendliness, earning an “F”
• High marks for education, workforce and infrastructure
• Experts highlight global access, quality of life as key assets

New Jersey dropped five spots in the 2025 CNBC Top States for Business list, falling from No. 25 in 2024 to No. 30 this year.

Key things to know about the Garden State’s 2025 ranking and grades:

Check out New Jersey’s full score here. The full list – led by North Carolina, Texas and Florida – is available here.

Inaction and consequences

In a statement following the release of the list, New Jersey Business & Industry Association President and CEO Michele Siekerka said that 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.

“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,” said Siekerka. “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.”

She said that this ranking reaffirms that the state’s “exceedingly high” business taxes, income taxes, property taxes – and its “extreme regulatory burdens” – do have consequences for Jersey’s national business reputation and 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,” said Siekerka. “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.”

Bad company

New Jersey Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Bracken said this ranking is alarming and concerning – but, unfortunately, not surprising.

“We’ve been saying for years – the lack of attention that our legislative leaders and the administration have paid to the business community would make us less competitive and less attractive,” Bracken told NJBIZ. “And the CNBC poll ratifies that.”

Bracken referenced the Chamber’s response to this year’s state budget, recently signed into law, which he described as the worst for business that he could remember.

“And it would not help our competitiveness, affordability or business friendliness,” said Bracken. “And again, this ranking ratifies all of that. Sooner or later, our Legislature and our administration – hopefully the new administration will start to believe what we’ve been saying. And that is that we are digging a hole competitively – and we continue to drop.

We’ve been saying for years – the lack of attention that our legislative leaders and the administration have paid to the business community would make us less competitive and less attractive. And the CNBC poll ratifies that.
– Tom Bracken, CEO, NJ Chamber

“And it’s going to make it much more difficult for us to recover and gain any kind of economic prosperity that we should be able to achieve. To rank 49th in business friendliness — that category right there. If that was the middle of the pack, we would be much higher than 30th. But we are next to last – and if you look at who’s last, that’s New York. It’s not good company to be in.

“If you look at the CNBC definition of business friendliness, it talks about a lack of attention paid to business, the overregulation of business, the costs associated with doing business,” Bracken continued. “It’s all the things we’ve been talking about.”

No surprises here

John Boyd Jr., principal of location advisory firm The Boyd Co., weighed in with his analysis of New Jersey’s ranking.

“With more and more companies performing the bulk of site selection projects in-house and relying on research from published surveys, AI, data-rich websites of state development agencies, annual surveys like CNBC’s Top States are relevant research tools — particularly when comparing apples to apples metrics like education, workforce and infrastructure,” Boyd told NJBIZ.

He noted no big surprises with the state’s ranking in terms of high business costs, taxes and high cost of living; as well as with New Jersey’s strong showing on quality of life.

“Excellent schools and world renowned universities, 130 miles of beach coastline, proximity to major markets remain a powerful industry recruiting tool for my home state. Also, I always say New Jersey is a ‘connected’ state – in terms of the state’s ready access to the global marketplace via major international airports and deep water ports in North Jersey/Greater New York and South Jersey/Greater Philadelphia. This is a major asset with today’s growing focus on global trade and on-shoring opportunities.”

Please stay tuned to NJBIZ for further coverage and reaction.