10 States with America’s best workforces

With Labor Department data showing slower job growth in the U.S. amid a cooling economy, and job openings coming down from peak pandemic-era levels, the employment market has come a bit more into balance. But that doesn’t mean the nation doesn’t still face a severe longer-term labor shortage, experts say.

“It’s very hard to find the right talent for really critical roles,” said Josh Wright, an executive vice president at Lightcast, an Idaho-based labor market research firm. He said much of the relative pause in hiring represents companies waiting to see how the election turns out.

“From what I’m seeing on the ground, there’s just a wait-and-see approach. So, there’s going to be a pent up demand,” he said.

Even now, there remain fewer available workers than there are job openings.

It’s no wonder that finding the best workforce remains a huge priority as companies decide where to do business, said site selection consultant John Boyd, Jr., of The Boyd Company.

“Companies are demanding new skill sets in things like artificial intelligence and cybersecurity and robotics,” he said. “So really, most projects today are really focused on workforce.”

Because of that, Workforce remains one of the most important categories in America’s Top States for Business, CNBC’s annual ranking of all 50 states. Under this year’s methodology, Workforce accounts for 15% of a state’s total score, second only to Infrastructure among ten categories of competitiveness.

We consider the educational attainment of each state’s workforce, and the concentration of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workers in each state. We also look at the career education pipeline, state workforce training programs, and workers with industry-recognized certificates. We look at each state’s right-to-work laws. We consider which states are most successful in attracting skilled workers (Lightcast supplied some of the worker attraction data). And we measure the productivity of each state’s labor force.

These 10 states are winning the talent wars in 2024.

With the nation’s second highest unemployment rate after neighboring California, employers will find a wealth of available talent in the Silver State, and more workers moving there all the time. The state has a good pipeline of career-educated workers, and state workforce training programs perform well. However, there is a serious shortage of STEM workers, and college-educated employees in general. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is focused on building the state’s health-care workforce, signing an executive order empowering the state’s Patient Protection Committee to seek solutions to the shortage.

2024 Workforce Score: 227 out of 375 points (Top States Grade: C+)

Net Migration Rank: No. 16

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 26.5%

Career Education Credential: 16.1%

STEM Workers: 3.9%

Right to Work State? Yes

The Old Dominion takes pride in its workforce, and rightly so. It is one of America’s best educated talent pools, including the fourth-largest concentration of STEM workers. Virginia doesn’t have quite as much to crow about when it comes to career-educated workers, but worker training programs perform exceptionally well, and it is a right to work state. The state does lag in net migration, however, with Census figures often showing more workers leaving Virginia than moving there.

“The data is irrefutable,” said Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in his State of the Commonwealth address in January, noting that “Three out of four people leaving Virginia make $100,000 or more. And the taxes they pay are leaving with them.”

He recently told CNBC that Virginia is making progress in reversing the trend of people moving away from the state, with the workforce growing at what he described as a “rapid pace” – 240,00 more people working in the state since he took office. 

2024 Workforce Score: 232 out of 375 points (Top States Grade: C+)

Net Migration Rank: No. 41

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 41%

Career Education Credential: 14.7%

STEM Workers: 9.3%

Right to Work State? Yes

The Volunteer State’s workforce development programs have an outstanding success rate. According to U.S. Department of Labor data, 84% of participants in state-sponsored worker training are employed within six months of completing the program. That is the fifth-highest rate in the nation.

The trouble in Tennessee is that there are not enough workers. Half of the respondents in a University of Tennessee Knoxville survey of business leaders said they are having trouble finding skilled workers. Part of the problem is that Tennessee has a shortage of educated workers, and its concentration of STEM workers is among the nation’s lowest.

2024 Workforce Score: 236 out of 375 points (Top States Score: C+)

Net Migration Rank: No. 10

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 29.7%

Career Education Credential: 15%

STEM Workers: 5%

Right to Work State? Yes

Each worker in Delaware accounted for more than $150,000 in economic output last year, according to CNBC’s analysis of Labor Department and Commerce Department data. That makes Delaware workers among the most productive in the nation. And while the First State might not be the first place that comes to mind as a career destination, the state is doing a solid job of attracting workers, based on data from the Census Bureau and Lightcast.

But the state is not doing enough to grow its workforce, according to the Delaware Business Roundtable. In a report earlier this year, the organization listed worker shortages among the biggest issues facing the state. The report recommended the creation of an online job portal connecting employers with in state and out-of-state job seekers, and a toolkit to recruit people to move to Delaware. But the labor shortages here are not unlike those in most other states, and Delaware faces them from a position of relative strength.

2024 Workforce Score: 243 out of 375 points (Top States Grade: B-)

Net Migration Rank: No. 12

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 34.5%

Career Education Credential: 13.3%

STEM Workers: 6.9%

Right to Work State? No

The Grand Canyon State is hot, and we are not talking about the average temperature (though that’s hot, too). The historic expansion of the state’s semiconductor industry — and business in general — is drawing skilled employees here like moths to a flame. Arizona does have a labor shortage, though, with 0.71 available workers for every open job, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But the shortages here are not as severe as many other states, thanks to so many people moving here.

The state is making moves to boost its workforce, particularly in advanced manufacturing. Arizona’s Future48 Workforce Accelerators, at five career colleges around the state, are teaching students the skills they need to work in industries like robotics, biotech, and, yes, semiconductors.

2024 Workforce Score: 257 out of 375 points (Top States Score: B+)

Net Migration Rank: No. 3

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 31.8%

Career Education Credential: 21.9%

STEM Workers: 6.9%

Right to Work State? Yes

No state has a greater concentration of STEM workers than the home of Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, you get the idea. In addition to being skilled and well educated, Washington workers are also among the most productive in the nation. Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, signed a package of worker protection bills into law in March, including a paid sick leave measure, and a bill to give the state more power to investigate wage discrimination. While the measures don’t directly affect Washington’s Workforce ranking, the hope is to make the Evergreen State even more attractive to workers than it already is.

But Washington stumbles badly in its worker training programs. Only 64% of participants are finding work within six months, the lowest rate in the nation.

2024 Workforce Score: 260 out of 375 points (Top States Grade: B+)

Net Migration Rank: No. 5

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 38%

Career Education Credential: 18%

STEM Workers: 10.5%

Right to Work State: No

The Georgia Quick Start worker training program bills itself as the oldest program of its kind in the nation, established in 1967. Part of the Peach State’s technical college system, Quick Start works with companies to create specialized training programs. The service is free for employers, and it has helped Georgia develop a rich pipeline of talent. It is also helping Georgia avoid some of the brain drain that many other states are suffering.

Georgia’s workforce finishes roughly in the middle of the pack for educational attainment, and it is not exactly a mecca for tech workers. But even if the Georgia workforce model may be a little heavier on brawn than brain, it is enormously successful just the same.

2024 Workforce Score: 264 out of 375 points (Top States Grade: B+)

Net Migration Rank: No. 8

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 33.6%

Career Education Credential: 16.4%

STEM Workers: 5.9%

Right to Work State? Yes

The Tar Heel State has had an incredible run of business success, and that may be part of the problem. North Carolina’s workforce remains impressively well-rounded. But the state slips from its No. 1 Workforce finish in 2023 (and its No. 1 overall ranking in CNBC’s Top States for Business last year) in part because there are simply fewer great North Carolina workers available than there were a year ago, relative to the number of available jobs.

While net migration into the state is among the strongest in the nation, North Carolina Department of Commerce Senior Economist Andrew Berger-Gross noted in a recent blog post that the state’s labor force participation rate has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. He theorizes that part of the issue may be demographics, as the state’s population aged 55 and over has increased to 38% in 2023, versus 27% in 2001.

“As our population gets older, more individuals are approaching retirement age, leading to a lower labor force participation rate overall,” he wrote.

2024 Workforce Score: 269 out of 375 points (Top States Grade: A-)

Net Migration Rank: No. 6

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 35.9%

Career Education Credential: 16.7%

STEM Workers: 7.1%

Right to Work State? Yes

Workers keep flooding into the Sunshine State, meeting the robust demand from America’s most dynamic economy. But the biggest workforce story in Florida in 2024 is the improvement in its workforce development programs. Nearly 86% of participants found work within six months of completing their training, compared to just 59% a year ago. In other words, Florida raised its ranking in that important metric of the Workforce category from the worst in the nation to the third best.

Florida’s 2024-25 budget, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June, included $75 million in grants to expand workforce education.

The state does lag in STEM workers, and the state ranks 26th for educational attainment of its workforce.

2024 Workforce Score: 282 out of 375 points (Top States Grade: A)

Net Migration Rank: No. 1

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 32.3%

Career Education Credential: 19.4%

STEM Workers: 5.4%

Right to Work State: Yes

In 2021, the most recent full year of data available from the Census Bureau, 2.4 million college-educated workers moved to Texas. That outpaces the 2.2 million who left, making the Lone Star State an enormously powerful talent magnet. That means that even as Texas turns in some of the strongest economic growth in the nation, it still has the workforce to sustain that growth.

“Texas continues to outpace the nation in nearly all industries and continues to increase the number of employed Texans,” said Texas Workforce Commissioner Alberto Treviño in a recent monthly labor market update.

With so many new Texans joining the labor force, however, getting effective training to those who need it can be a challenge. About 79% of participants in state worker training programs are finding work within six months, slightly below the national average. But that is the only relative weak spot in the state with America’s strongest workforce.

2024 Workforce Score: 297 out of 375 points (Top States Grade: A+)

Net Migration Rank: No. 3

Adults with Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 32.3%

Career Education Credential: 15.5%

STEM Workers: 7%

Right to Work State? Yes