Updated New Jersey city one of the hardest working in the U.S., study finds

Listen to this article

New York may very well be the city that never sleeps, but a New Jersey-based city on the Hudson is one that never stops.Personal finance website WalletHub looked at the 116 most populous cities in the U.S. and ranked them in order of “hardest working.” The results were based on seven criteria: average hours in a workweek, labor force participation rate, time spent commuting, workers employed at multiple jobs, volunteer hours per resident, how often residents get inadequate sleep in a month and average daily leisure time.

Edging out New York City was its neighbor to the west: Jersey City, which made the list at No. 6.

“We are a city of immigrants that believe in the American Dream and, as a city, we try to leverage that spirit to create more jobs for residents, which is clearly working,” Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop told NJBIZ.

In the last 18 months, Fulop’s office said, administration policies have helped 150 new small businesses — including 50 restaurants — open in the city, employing thousands of residents.

Since Fulop took office in July 2013, Jersey City’s unemployment rate has dropped from 10.6 percent to 6.5 percent, the administration added. That improvement has significantly outpaced changes on a state and national level, as well as among other major cities in the region.

The complete ranking of “hardest working” cities, according to WalletHub, is as follows:

10. Annapolis, Maryland
9. Denver, Colorado
8. San Francisco, California
6. Jersey City, New Jersey (tie)
6. Garland, Texas (tie)
5. Irving, Texas
4. Cheyenne, Wyoming
3. Plano, Texas
2. Virginia Beach, Virginia
1. Anchorage, Alaska

To see Wallethub’s main findings, click here.

ALSO ON NJBIZ:

‘RBF’ might be a funny Internet bit, but for women in business, it’s not necessarily a laughing matter

Matrix Development advancing its latest Newark project

Borgata turning up A.C.’s entertainment options with two new projects