Iowa Has Harder Workers Than Illinois Does Says This Study

With Labor Day weekend right around the corner, a new study has come out to show which states have more hard workers than others. Even though most Americans are hard workers, putting in an average of 1,804 hours per year as of 2023, according to the World Economic Forum, some workers in some states aren't keen on hard work. We looked at Iowa and Illinois in this study (duh) and they couldn't be more opposite.

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Our friends at WalletHub conducted a study to find out which states work the hardest and which ones are the laziest. In order to determine 2024's Hardest-Working States, WalletHub compared the 50 states across two key dimensions:

• Direct Work Factors
• Indirect Work Factors

WalletHub then evaluated those dimensions using ten key metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the “hardest-working.”

After doing a bunch of math and figuring out each state’s weighted average across all metrics, WalletHub calculated each state's overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

When the math was all complete, here is what WalletHub found:

WalletHub found that the state with the hardest workers in America is North Dakota, and the state that has the laziest workers is West Virginia.

How did Iowa and Illinois do?

Iowa is in the top 20 states with the hardest workers. Iowa landed at #17 on this list. Iowa was 18th in Direct Work Factors and 24th in Indirect Work Factors. Iowa is also tied for 3rd in idle youth rate.

Here are some other stats that WalletHub found about Iowa:

• 21^st – Avg. Workweek Hours
• 16^th – Employment Rate
• 4^th – Share of Workers with Multiple Jobs
• 17^th – Annual Volunteer Hours per Resident

Illinois on the other hand was very far down on the list. They are actually in the top 10 states with the laziest workers. Illinois ranked 40th on this list and had an overall score of 34.69. Illinois was 43rd in Direct Work Factors and 17th in Indirect Work Factors.

Illinois ranked 48th in employment which is also third-highest in unemployment.

We know there are hard workers everywhere, including Illinois. Don't think this is aimed towards you for those that are hard workers.