North Carolina has received Area Development magazine’s 2023 Platinum Shovel Award which recognizes states that went above and beyond the gold standard for investment and job creation. This is the second year in a row the state has received this honor, sharing the inaugural award in 2022 with Tennessee. North Carolina is the only state recognized for the Platinum Shovel award this year.
The Platinum Shovel Award is part of Area Development’s annual celebration of economic development, which also includes the Gold and Silver Shovel awards. North Carolina was previously honored by the magazine, having received Gold Shovel awards in 2018 and 2021 and Silver Shovel awards in 2009, 2011–2017, and 2019–2020.
“I’m proud of the people of North Carolina who deserve being recognized for economic excellence in 2022,” said Governor Roy Cooper. “Our world class workforce, our positive business environment and our high-quality community colleges and universities continue to attract top businesses to our state.”
Area Development’s annual Shovel Awards recognize states for their cumulative achievements in attracting high-value investment projects that will create a significant number of new jobs in their communities. All 50 states across the country submitted their top job creation and investment projects from 2022. States were then scored based on the number of new jobs to be created in relation to the state’s population, the combined dollar amount of the company investments, the number of new facilities and the diversity of industry represented.
“North Carolina had another robust year in 2022, with more than 28,000 new jobs and $19.3 billion in capital investment announced, in industries ranging from life sciences to advanced manufacturing and to clean energy,” said Christopher Chung, CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC). “Our strong public and private partnerships have been the key to winning economic development projects throughout 2022.”
In addition to the Platinum Shovel award, North Carolina also had two projects recognized as Projects of the Year. VinFast’s electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facility in Moncure was recognized as the 2022 Manufacturing Project of the Year. The project will create 7,500 jobs and invest $4 billion. The 2022 Non-Manufacturing Project of the Year was given to Macy’s Inc. for its first-ever fully automated distribution center in China Grove. The project will create 2,800 new jobs and invest $584.3 million.
Beyond this honor, North Carolina won Site Selection magazine’s 2023 Prosperity Cup, an annual award given to state-level organizations with the most successful economic development and business development projects in their state for the previous year. Earlier this month, the EDPNC received Business Facilities magazine’s inaugural 2023 Economic Development Organization award in the State Economic Development Organization category.
To read more about North Carolina’s economic successes in 2022, visit edpnc-annualreport.com.