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Do some rankings put Wisconsin among the bottom 10 states in job creation and entrepreneurship?
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Yes.
Wisconsin was among the bottom 10 states in job and business creation in some 2025 rankings, but higher in others.
For starting a business, National Business Capital, a financier, ranked Wisconsin 42nd, citing high taxes and low available funding. Small-business publication Simplify LLC, whose analysis included new business and job creation rates, ranked Wisconsin 43rd. Wisconsin was ranked 35th by WalletHub and 34th by U.S. News & World Report.
More generally, CNBC ranked Wisconsin 21st for business. Wisconsin scored higher in infrastructure and cost of doing business, lower in quality of life and legal and regulatory burdens. Wisconsin also ranked 21st in a poll of CEOs and business owners on best states for business.
Critics say rankings have limited value or are misleading.
From January 2018 to January 2025, Wisconsin added 63,300 jobs, ranking 40th in job creation, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- National Business Capital: The Best States to Start a Business in 2025
- SimplifyLLC: Research: Best and Worst States for New Businesses
- WalletHub: Best & Worst States to Start a Business 2025
- CNBC: Americaβs Top States for Business 2025: The full rankings
- Chief Executive: Texas, Florida And Tennessee Top Chief Executiveβs 2025 Best & Worst States For Business Poll
- Camoin Associates: Reading Between the Lines: What State Business Rankings Really Tell Us
- Kauffman Indicators of Entreprenuership: FAQs
- Federal Reserve Bank Philadelphia: Early Benchmark Revisions of State Payroll Employment 2018-2025
Do some rankings put Wisconsin among the bottom 10 states in job creation and entrepreneurship? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
