WHEELING, W.Va. (WTRF) — Government officials and business leaders across the Mountain State are still reeling over a recent national report which determined that West Virginia has the worst state economy in the nation.

The personal-finance website WalletHub recently released it’s report on 2023’s Best & Worst State Economies.

West Virginia faired poorly in several categories, ranking dead last in Annual Median Household Income.

The State also ranked 50th in the percentage of Jobs in High Tech Industries.

Financial Advisor Jason Haswell says it’s the lack of high-tech jobs and industries that keeps West Virginia’s economy lagging behind other states.

He says the state needs to do a better job of transitioning from yesterday’s economy into today’s high-tech world.

“But the one place in West Virginia where we have struggled from an economic standpoint is we simply do not have a lot of high-tech jobs, high-tech businesses, high-tech manufacturing, here in the State of West Virginia. As technology has taken over, as we have lost coal jobs we haven’t done much to re-train those guys or maybe get them into an industry like tech or tech manufacturing where they could re-purpose themselves.”

Jason Haswell, Financial Advisor, Monteverde Group, Wheeling

Haswell suggests possible tax credits for companies that would bring high-tech manufacturing or some forms of tech jobs to the Mountain State.