Which US States are Working the Longest Hours? New Study Finds Out

Journo Research

Tuesday, November 14th, 2023

New research has revealed the states working the longest hours, with Texas coming out on top.

The study by personal finance website Wealth of Geeks analyzed new 2022 data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to find which states were working the most hours weekly and annually.

It found that Texas is statistically the state working the longest hours. A total of 22,530,209,000 hours were worked in the state in 2022, with 12,588,259 total jobs. This equates to 1,790 hours worked per job annually, or 34.42 hours worked per job weekly, the highest of any state.

Louisiana takes second on the list, with a total of 3,143,651,000 hours worked with a total of 1,759,027 jobs. Putting these two numbers together equals 1,787 hours worked annually per job or 34.37 hours worked weekly.

Coming in third on the list is the state of West Virginia. The state has a total of 586,333 jobs with 1,038,069,000 hours worked in 2022, equal to 1,773 hours worked annually per job or 34.11 hours worked weekly.

Wyoming comes in a close fourth place on the list, with 1,773 hours worked annually per job, or 34.09 hours worked weekly, with only the weekly hours separating third and fourth place. This is due to a total of 419,115,000 hours worked with 236,398 jobs.

Rounding out the top five is the state of Tennessee, which has 5,389,573,000 hours worked in 2022 with 3,058,778 total jobs. This equals 1,762 hours worked annually per job or 33.88 hours worked weekly. 

Rank

Area

Year

Hours worked

Total jobs

Annual hours worked per job

Weekly hours worked per job

1

Texas

2022

22,530,209,000

12,588,259

1,790

34.42

2

Louisiana

2022

3,143,651,000

1,759,027

1,787

34.37

3

West Virginia

2022

1,038,069,000

585,333

1,773

34.11

4

Wyoming

2022

419,115,000

236,398

1,773

34.09

5

Tennessee

2022

5,389,573,000

3,058,778

1,762

33.88

6

Alaska

2022

478,625,000

272,925

1,754

33.72

7

Nevada

2022

2,499,157,000

1,433,336

1,744

33.53

8

Oklahoma

2022

2,552,381,000

1,465,302

1,742

33.50

9

Arizona

2022

5,118,348,000

2,945,814

1,737

33.41

10

Alabama

2022

3,207,755,000

1,847,629

1,736

33.39

Commenting on the findings, Michael Dinich, the founder of Wealth of Geeks, said: “While certain states have huge amounts of hours worked compared to others, when you look at the number of total jobs they have, that’s where clear differences in the states can be seen. The general theme here is that many of the states in this top ten are in the south of the country, and it will be interesting to see whether this trend continues in future, and whether these numbers influence people’s work-life balance.”