Don’t Get Angry: Study Says People from Iowa Aren’t Hard Workers?

Iowans are hard-working folk. With so many farmers who work hard year-round with few days off, and numerous factory workers, how can anyone say otherwise? Well, they essentially have. A new study from WalletHub (in honor of Labor Day) put Iowa as the 19th hardest-working state. Sidebar, who funds these studies? Shouldn't we be putting more dollars and sense into medical studies?

Anyways, the study ranked Iowa 19th, which is still in the top 40%, I understand; puts Iowa below most other Midwestern states. THAT is where I take issue.

Iowa ranks 19 - here is why (according to the study)

The study examined several metrics. Hours people work, average commute times (how does this matter?), employment/unemployment rates, and how much spare time folks have. Using these obviously 100% telling metrics, Alaska ranked #1. North Dakota came in number 2 and Nebraska finished 3rd.

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Also beating out Iowa's 19th spot, South Dakota at number 4, Minnesota at 16, and Kansas at 10. Iowa did edge Wisconsin, which was 23rd, and Illinois, which always bottoms out in these studies. They came in at 43 out of 50. Ouch. Here's where everyone ended up:

Studies like this are usually wrong

Call it sour grapes if you want, but studies that just throw a bunch of data into a computer, spit it out, and ship it off to morning radio DJs to talk about, are sloppy and get things wrong more often than not. For example, this study ranks the lowest idle youth rates in the U.S. In other words, states where kids work. Um, farmers? Farming families? Anyone? Both North Dakota and Nebraska ranked high in this metric, but Iowa was absent. Iowa also not ranking near the top in hours worked seems to be a bizarre omission.

As we sit, the last unemployment update found Iowa at 4.0. A non-state, but government official update put our unemployment at 4.1 in July. This is from June 2021. Iowa has taken a hit here. Once the among the lowest in the U.S., this has ticked up recently. So, in the only defense of this study, perhaps Iowa does deserve a slightly lower ranking. But 19th? Still hardly seems correct.