Oregon has fallen deeper into the bottom tier of states for business, prompting Oregon Business & Industry to renew its calls for state leaders to improve the business climate.
The state dropped three places to No. 42 in CNBC’s 2026 America’s Top States for Business ranking, its lowest position in the index’s 20-year history. Oregon ranked 39th last year and has now fallen 25 places since reaching No. 17 in 2017.
The latest results also place Oregon among the nation’s bottom 10 states for the first time.
Oregon ranked No. 43 for both cost of doing business and business friendliness—two categories that directly affect employers deciding whether to expand, hire or invest in the state. Its strongest performance came in infrastructure at No. 17, although that represented a three-place decline from last year.
The state ranked No. 24 for workforce and No. 39 for its economy.
CNBC evaluates all 50 states across 10 categories, including workforce, infrastructure, economy, cost of doing business, business friendliness, access to capital, education and quality of life. The rankings are designed to reflect the factors companies consider when choosing where to locate or expand.
Oregon Business & Industry President and CEO Angela Wilhelms said no single ranking tells the complete story, but argued that the broader economic indicators point in the same direction.
“Unfortunately, all of the most meaningful measures are saying the same thing: Oregon is experiencing an economic crisis,” Wilhelms said in an OBI statement.
She cited slow economic growth, weak job creation, elevated unemployment and population stagnation.
“To turn this around, Oregon needs focused leadership, and policymakers need to take action to improve our business environment,” Wilhelms said.
The decline comes as Gov. Tina Kotek pursues an ambitious goal of moving Oregon into CNBC’s top 10 states for business. Her Prosperity Roadmap, released in December, calls for retaining and growing Oregon companies, accelerating economic growth and creating more living-wage jobs.
Since releasing the roadmap, Kotek has signed House Bill 4084, which established a Joint Permitting Council and a fast-track process for qualifying economic-development projects. The broader roadmap also calls for investment in industrial infrastructure, modernization of economic-development incentives and recommendations on targeted tax changes for consideration during the 2027 legislative session.
Oregon’s latest ranking shows how far the state remains from that goal: It would need to climb at least 32 places to enter the top 10.
For Salem-area employers, the ranking is more than a national scorecard. Business costs, taxes, regulations, workforce availability and the speed of government approvals can determine whether a local company hires another employee, expands its facility or puts an investment on hold.
The larger question is whether state leaders’ economic initiatives will produce measurable improvements—or whether Oregon’s decline will continue while competing states move further ahead.
