The Hardest Working Cities In America

Nicole Fallon, BusinessNewsDaily Contributor

Everything is bigger in Texas, including its work ethic. According to research conducted by Movoto Real Estate, five of the 10 hardest-working cities in the country are located in the Lone Star State. Seattle snagged the No. 1 spot, while New York — a city known for its high-powered workaholics — just missed the cut for top 10.

Movoto looked at America’s 50 most populous cities and ranked them in order of how hard their residents worked. For each city, researchers looked at average number of hours worked per week, unemployment rate, commute time, employed workers per household, number of volunteer hours per year, lack of sleep and cost of living. Information was pulled from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, census data, and other related reports. Based on Movoto’s research, the 10 hardest working cities are as follows:

  1. Seattle

  2. Arlington, Texas

  3. Fort Worth, Texas

  4. Austin, Texas

  5. San Jose, Calif.

  6. San Francisco

  7. Dallas

  8. Virginia Beach, Va.

  9. Washington, D.C.

  10. Houston

While Seattle received the top overall ranking, the real estate company’s report also broke down the highest-ranking city in each analyzed category:

  • Longest work week: Houston — 37.6 hours per week (based on a full-time work week of more than 35 hours)

  • Lowest unemployment rate: Seattle — 4 percent

  • Longest commute time: Chicago — 33.7 minutes each way

  • Most workers per household: New York — 2.4 workers

  • Most volunteer hours outside of work: Oklahoma City — 76.6 hours per person per year

  • Highest number of nights without adequate sleep: Columbus, Ohio — 9.7 nights per month

  • Highest cost of living: San Francisco

Because this list only looks at the most populated cities in the nation, most of which are metropolitan areas, it may not provide an accurate picture of the average American worker. However, there is a high concentration of "hardworking cities" in Texas (7 out of 50) and California (8 out of 50), as these states each had two cities on CareerBliss' 2012 list of happiest cities to work in.

View the full chart on Movoto.com.

This story was provided by BusinessNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Nicole Fallon on Twitter @nicole__fallon. Follow us on Twitter @BNDarticles, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on BusinessNewsDaily.

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