When you think about hard workers, you naturally think farmers. Or factory workers... maybe plant or processing workers. Certainly front line workers as well, especially in 2020 and 2021. Well, in Iowa we have all of those trades. Especially the farmers and factory workers. So, maybe you're surprised like I am to learn that according to a new study done by WalletHub, only one Iowa city is in their annual list of hardest working cities. Now in fairness, it ranked very high. But still, only one? Let's explore.

According to the study, Des Moines, our capital, ranks #48 on the study. In case you're wondering, the study explored the top 116 hardest working cities, so it's cool to have one in the top 50. But still, only one? The study gets its results based on 11 'work' factors. These include:

  • Total hours worked
  • Average leisure time per day
  • How many people work more than one job
  • The number of vacation days that went unused by employees
  • Employment rate (Iowa always does well in this metric)
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All in all, Des Moines 48th spot is pretty cool. But you'd expect more cities to make it. Waterloo, for example, is home to a Tyson processing plant, John Deere factories and other industries that seemingly never close. Cedar Rapids is a huge factory town as well, and routinely appears on WalletHub employment studies... Ah well. At least we got one.

In case you're curious, the Top 5 hardest working cities are: Anchorage, Alaska, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and  Irving, Texas. Des Moines beat out Minneapolis and St. Paul and Kansas City. Chicago did not rank. You can see 'em all here.

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