June 19. 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.

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.

Cooper

“I’m proud of the people of North Carolina who deserve being recognized for economic excellence in 2022,” said Gov. 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.”

2 winning projects

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.