RALEIGH, N.C.—In North Carolina, the economic challenges are geographic: The state can readily lure business to its fast-growing cities but struggles to sell its vast rural territory.

The issue was underscored this month when Raleigh made the shortlist of sites for Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters, but the state lost out to Alabama on a $1.6 billion automotive-assembly plant that officials had pushed for a struggling former textile town.

“We have some work to do,” said Lew Ebert, chief executive of the North Carolina Chamber. “The growth is certainly uneven.”

Lopsided economic growth is widening a long-term divide between cities like financial hub Charlotte and tech-center Raleigh and the state’s countryside, which has withered with the collapse of the tobacco, textile and furniture industries.

Unemployment is higher in the rural areas, while education levels are lower. The state’s 80 rural counties saw a 3% decline in taxable wages in the past decade, compared with 6% growth in the 14 suburban counties and 15% growth in the 6 urban counties, according to The Rural Center, a not-for-profit advocacy group.