Fort Worth is one of the country’s hardest-working cities, says new study
If you’re an employed North Texas resident, you are one of the hardest-working people in the country, according to one study.
A new WalletHub study ranked five North Texas cities, including Fort Worth, in the top 20 for the “2025 Hardest-Working Cities in America.” WalletHub defined “hardest-working” in 116 large cities based on average work week hours, commute lengths, employment rates, those with multiple jobs and amount of leisure time spent.
Americans work an average of 1,799 hours per year, which equates to an average of 34 hours a week. According to WalletHub, this is more than Japan, Germany and the U.K. And for the U.S., the study shows that Texas tied with California as the most hard-working states, each with 13 cities listed.
Most notably, Irving is at No. 3. This could be due to a number of factors, but one good indicator is the amount of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies that have headquarters there. According to the Irving Chamber of Commerce, the city is the second-largest employment center in the state.
Here is what the WalletHub study found for which cities are the hardest working in America.
Hardest working cities in Texas
WalletHub ranked these Texas cities as the hardest-working in their list of 116:
No. 3: Irving
No. 4: Dallas
No. 6: Austin
No. 10: Arlington
No. 13: Plano
No. 14: Corpus Christi
No. 15: Laredo
No. 16: Fort Worth
No. 21: Garland
No. 28: Houston
No. 38: Lubbock
No. 39: El Paso
No. 47: San Antonio
Why was Fort Worth rated as one of the hardest-working cities in America?
The study found that Fort Worth is the No. 16-hardest-working city in the nation.
Cowtown is the twelfth-largest city by population with 978,468 residents. Sixty-eight percent of residents who are 16 years old or older are employed, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
WalletHub attributes Fort Worth’s high ranking to:
No. 14 for average workweek hours: 36 hours.
No. 27 for average commute time: 27 minutes.
No. 55 for share of workers with multiple jobs: As of January 2025, 5.3 percent of U.S. residents hold multiple jobs. It is unclear what percentage of employees hold multiple jobs in Fort Worth.
No. 12 for share of households where no adults work: Knowing that 68 percent of Fort Worth residents have work, means that 32 percent of households (those 16 years old and older) do not work.
No. 21 for annual volunteer hours per resident: While there is not a clear number of average volunteer hours per resident, we do know that organizations in the city require between five to 20 hours per month– depending on the organization you volunteer for.
No. 14 for average leisure time spent per day: The national average for leisure and sports activities in the U.S. is about five hours per day. Fort Worth’s exact number is unclear.