New Jersey may be a lot of things. Sure, we may be difficult to deal with at times, but that's only because we don't like to put up with nonsense. We're a tough crowd, and it's one of the reasons why many who aren't from around here tend to get intimidated by us.

But honestly, it's more like a badge of honor that we stand our ground. After all, they don't say Jersey tough for no reason (well, except for our fear of gas pumps, but that's a topic for another day).

Perhaps that's the reason some of these rankings should be taken lightly. According to a recent list done by deseret.com, New Jersey ranks 43rd out of 50 when it comes to its citizens being hard workers.  In other words, we ranked 8th as one of the laziest states when it comes to our performance.

Lazy guy flung all over the couch
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So how was this ranking compiled? Deseret.com focused on a number of factors including "average workweek hours, employment rate, idle youth rate, leisure time, and volunteer efforts," as well as "commute time and amount of people with multiple jobs."

Let's look at those last few factors for a moment. Commuting in New Jersey is no picnic, and the cost of living is out of control, so it's not uncommon to find people working multiple jobs just to make ends meet.

With that said, is it really fair to say New Jersey doesn't work hard? Maybe we're just perceived that way when in reality, we're just really very exhausted.

Or maybe those very factors of having multiple jobs and less leisure time factor into our perception of not working hard. Living in New Jersey isn't easy, so to say we're exhausted wouldn't be too far off the mark. But to say we don't work hard? That one's kind of a stretch.

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dragana991
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Fortunately for us, there are a handful of states that landed even lower than us. New Mexico fell at the very bottom at 50, followed by Rhode Island at 49, and New York at 48.

Also, we're not alone in our region of being toward the bottom. Aside from New York and Rhode Island, Connecticut also fell below New Jersey at 45, while our two other bordering states fared better than us with Pennsylvania at 38 and Delaware at 36. Needless to say, our neighbors to the south and west seem to have their acts together a bit better than us.

So who landed at number one? That title goes to North Dakota, followed by Alaska in 2nd place, and Nebraska in 3rd. As for how those states landed toward the top is hard to comprehend, but there you go.

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BrianAJackson
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Wondering how all 50 states ranked? You can check out the full list for 2022 by clicking here.

And a side note: A similar ranking was also conducted in 2021 by wallethub, where New Jersey also fell toward the bottom of the list. In fact, we actually dropped more now than we did a year ago. Click here to see how we did overall in 2021.

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