Work has been hard to come by during the pandemic, but Americans' work ethic in general remains strong. WalletHub wanted to find out which US cities have the hardest workers, and so the site looked at 116 of the country's biggest cities across nearly a dozen metrics in two main categories: direct work factors, which include everything from the average number of hours in a workweek and the employment rate, to the share of employees who let their vacation time go untouched; and indirect work factors, including average commute time, yearly volunteer hours per resident, and how much leisure time people build into their lives. Alaska's Anchorage came out on top, while Detroit could use a push. Read on for the top and bottom 10.
Hardest-Working Cities
- Anchorage, Alaska (No. 1 in "Direct Work Factors" category)
- Cheyenne, Wyo.
- Virginia Beach, Va.
- Washington, DC
- Irving, Texas
- San Francisco
- Austin, Texas
- Norfolk, Va.
- Corpus Christi, Texas
- Denver
Cities That Are Slacking - Fresno, Calif.
- New Orleans
- San Bernardino, Calif.
- Providence, RI
- Bridgeport, Conn.
- Cleveland
- Newark, NJ
- Buffalo, NY
- Burlington, Vt.
- Detroit
See how other cities on
WalletHub's list rank. (
Here are the states where jobs have taken a hard COVID hit.)