State ranked 33 for business, up 10 from 2016

Connecticut’s largest gains in CNBC’s annual list of America’s Top States were in education, workforce, and technology and innovation

In CNBC’s annual list of America’s Top States for Business, Connecticut rose 10 spots from its 2016 ranking to come in at 33, with the largest gains in education, workforce, and technology and innovation.

The 10-point jump puts Connecticut in a three-way tie for most improved, along with Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. But the business news outlet is clear that the state has a lot of work to do.

Writing in an accompanying piece for CNBC, Scott Cohn called the state’s finish “disappointing” and commented, “With a number of high-profile companies leaving or thinking of leaving the state, a No. 33 finish in our Top States rankings is what passes for good news in Connecticut these days.”

Connecticut owes much of its improvement to the jump in education ranking from 18 to 3, Cohn wrote, which is largely attributable to better high school test scores.

The ranking includes 10 categories, weighted by importance: workforce, infrastructure, cost of doing business, economy, quality of life, technology and innovation, education, business friendliness, access to capital and cost of living.

Education saw the largest jump since last year, and the only states with better rankings this year are Massachusetts and Minnesota.

Education Commissioner Dianna Wentzell said in a statement, “We have added hundreds of millions of dollars to our schools and we are seeing the results — graduation rates have reached record highs, we are among the top states in the nation in reading, chronic absenteeism is down, and we continue to whittle away at achievement gaps.”

After education, the next largest jumps were the rise in workforce ranking from 18 to 7, and in technology and innovation from 19 to 13.

Mark Hill, chief operating officer of the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board, attributed the workforce gains to the success of training and apprenticeship programs around the state.

A regional example he cited is EWIB’s Eastern CT Manufacturing Pipeline, a Department of Labor-funded program that began just 14 months ago.

Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut President Tony Sheridan attributed the increases to the policies of Gov. Dannel Malloy. While Cohn called Connecticut’s showing disappointing, Sheridan said he was “delighted” to see the results.

Connecticut stayed the same or improved on all categories except business friendliness, in which it fell from 29 to 32. Its lowest ranking was its placement at 47 for infrastructure. The next lowest ranking for the Nutmeg State was for cost of living, where it placed at 45.

Brian Flaherty, senior vice president at the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, feels that this list couldn’t have been released at a better time, “because it now illustrates just how important it is to produce a budget that our economy can grow on.”

He viewed the rises in education and workforce as being interconnected, considering that career training and education produce people ready to go to work.

While Connecticut fared a few spots better on education than workforce, the workforce ranking was worth more than double the points of the education ranking. This is because CNBC deemed workforce as the single most important quality to states in attracting business, measured by analyzing each state’s marketing materials for economic development.

Connecticut stayed the same or improved on all categories except business friendliness, in which it fell from 29 to 32.

The state’s lowest ranking was its placement at 47 for infrastructure. The CNBC list does not paint a pretty picture of New England roads and bridges, considering the only states lower than Connecticut are Maine, New Hampshire and, once again in last place, Rhode Island.

The next lowest ranking for the Nutmeg State was for cost of living, where it placed at 45. The only states worse for cost of living are Alaska, Massachusetts, California, New York and Hawaii.

The CNBC rankings are based on 66 metrics across the 10 categories, and its website lists 44 sources for data. This includes the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Commerce, College Board, Moody’s Investors Service and Tax Foundation.