North Dakota earned the No. 1 spot as the hardest-working state in the U.S., partly due to its high employment rate of over 98%, according to a new analysis published by WalletHub.
The personal finance company released its 2024 survey, "Hardest-Working States in America," on Aug. 26. The ranking is based on an analysis comparing states across 10 key indicators of work, including average workweek hours, the share of workers with multiple jobs and average leisure time spent per day.
WalletHub compared the 50 states across two dimensions: direct and indirect work factors. Direct work factors were weighted at 80 points and indirect work factors were weighted at 20 points to inform overall scores.
North Dakota had the highest employment rate in the country. Additionally, workers aged 16 to 64 worked 39.7 hours per week on average — the third highest number of hours in the U.S., according to WalletHub.
Alaska followed North Dakota in the overall ranking of hardest-working states, topping North Dakota's 41.6 hours worked per week for 16- to 64-year-olds, while landing at 12th for workers who leave some vacation time unused at 27.5%.
Below are the 10 hardest-working states and the 10 ranked last. The complete listing from WalletHub is available here.
Hardest-working states
1. North Dakota
2. Alaska
3. Nebraska
4. Wyoming
5. South Dakota
6. Maryland
7. Texas
8. Colorado
9. New Hampshire
10. Kansas
Bottom of list
1. West Virginia
2. New York
3. Michigan
4. New Mexico
5. Connecticut
6. Nevada
7. Rhode Island
8. New Jersey
9. Ohio
10. Oregon