2017 marked a year of missed opportunities to remove barriers to opportunity and address inequality. Job growth continued to be concentrated in North Carolina’s major urban centers and wages failed to keep up with the rising cost of living.

Policy choices at the state and federal level to cut taxes continue to be ill-suited to address North Carolina’s economic challenges. 2018 must be a year of new directions. Here are 12 charts that sum up North Carolina’s economy in 2017.