North Carolina was recently named first for workforce development in Site Selection Magazine’s annual rankings.
“North Carolina’s strength is our people,” said Gov. Josh Stein in a press release. “They power our economy. North Carolina is already the top state for business; now we are the top state for workforce.”
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“This recognition affirms what companies experience every day when they locate and grow in North Carolina,” Dr. Jeff Cox, president of the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS), said in a press release. “Our workforce development model is built on strong partnerships, local responsiveness and a clear focus on employer needs, which gives North Carolina a decisive advantage.”
For John Loyack, vice president of economic development for the NCCCS, the ranking is a victory decades in the making.
The state established an apprenticeship program to meet national standards back in the 1930s, Loyack said. In the 1950s, North Carolina developed a customized training program, still part of the community college system. Forty years ago, the community college system developed the small business center network.
And since the turn of the century, the system has responded to industry-specific needs, such as with the 2004 foundation of the NC BioNetwork to bolster the biotechnology and life science industries.
“We’ve been doing this a long time,” Loyack told EdNC, referring to the state’s workforce development efforts. “We’ve been building this out. And it’s much more than just the community college system. We played a really important role in this — but I think it’s reflective of the level of partnership that we have in this state and a level of investment we make.”
Site Selection highlighted several North Carolina programs as key reasons for the top-ranking position for the state, including the NCEdge Customized Training program, through which the state’s community colleges provided tailored upskilling and reskilling for 848 companies across 319 total workforce development projects between July 2024 and June 2025. The program has trained more than 100,000 North Carolinians through the program, according to the NCCCS release.
Among these projects were partnerships with aviation manufacturer JetZero, biotech firm Genentech, Amazon, and materials company PPG, per the release, which led to 16,000 new jobs and drove $16 billion in capital investment. The state brought in 33,000 jobs in 2025 thanks to economic development projects, according to the magazine.
Looking ahead, Loyack says he hopes to see tighter engagement with employers across the NCCCS’s workforce development programs.
“I see us going to a point where we are more engaged with employers,” Loyack said. “Employers aren’t just coming in for training, they’re providing instructors. They’re helping us understand what types of technologies are coming in. What are the things we need to be prepared to train on? What are the skill sets that we’ll need to deliver? I would say that’s going to be an even tighter relationship or it needs to be moving forward.”
The state has already shared its workforce development objectives, released through the Governor’s Council on Workforce and Apprenticeships’ December report.
The report’s first objective is increasing attainment, which includes increasing uptake of several financial aid and admissions programs, including NC College Connect, which Site Selection highlighted for “getting students in the door.” The new program gave around 62,000 public high school seniors direct admission to select colleges and universities across the state, including community colleges.
Investments in health care, artificial intelligence integrations in community college coursework, and the workforce-focused Propel NC funding model for community colleges also contributed to the state’s ranking.
Site Selection’s profile notes that North Carolina is still the only state in the country without a new comprehensive budget —stalling the implementation of Propel NC, the NCCCS’s new funding model that was first unveiled in January 2024.
But Loyack said North Carolina is still in a strong position because core workforce programs — NCEdge, ApprenticeshipNC, BioNetwork, and the Small Business Center Network — are permanently funded, regardless of annual budget delays.
“What I would say is we’re excited about the opportunity to continue to engage with the General Assembly and build out a new budget, because the new budget is where all of our innovative programs are going to be able to be funded,” Loyack said. “And so we’ve got some really exciting ideas for the future and things we want to do.”
Loyack said those include teacher apprenticeships, and customized training programs for small businesses and rural communities.
“I’m grateful with this,” Loyack said of the No. 1 ranking. “But it also gives us an opportunity to look in the mirror and say ‘OK, what’s next? What’s the next big thing going to be?’ And I will tell you, I think North Carolina has proven in a very modest way to the country that we’re capable of really big things.”
You can read more about the ranking on the system’s website.
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