Working like a dog this summer? Study shows so is much of Jersey

“And if your train's on time

You can get to work by nine

And start your slaving job to get your pay”

— Bachman Turner Overdrive

If you’re having serious summer fun FOMO due to pulling extra shifts, working overtime, picking up a side hustle to make ends meet, don’t worry. A study says many of your friends probably are too.

Man walks through a lush garden with a house.

New Jersey has just been ranked the No. 8  hardest-working state during the summer in a new analysis done by Homebase, a workforce management firm. They examined work hours, overtime, staffing levels, and seasonal hiring across all 50 states.

Turns out only Alaska, Maine, New York, Wyoming, Texas, Florida, and Colorado ranked ahead of the Garden State. But guess where our neighbors to the south and west ranked. Delaware was 49th and Pennsylvania was 50th.

Lazy.

An Amazon delivery driver loads a cart with packages on July 16, 2024. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

I guess it’s easy to see why New Jersey lands so high on the list. Summer means the Jersey Shore kicks into overdrive. Restaurants are packed. Hotels fill up. Boardwalks are crowded, and so a lot of people fill those jobs by picking up extra work in summer.

And I guess they’re serving out-of-state visitors from lazy Delaware and Pennsylvania who aren’t working?

Then there’s seasonal work that has some of their longest workdays of the year like landscaping crews and certain contractors.

A man pulling a wheelbarrow with a wheel

The study didn’t just look at average hours worked.

Researchers also factored in overtime, the percentage of employees working overtime, changes in staffing from spring to summer, employment trends, and how businesses staffed major summer holidays before creating an overall “summer work index.”

Our index score was 55.7 compared to the most hardworking state in summer Alaska with a 70.2, and the least hardworking state, Pennsylvania, with a 30.1.

Maybe they’re just too worn out from pumping their own gas all year.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

Report a correction 👈