Big D is home to even bigger business. North Texas has 22 Fortune 500 headquarters and a lower-than-average unemployment rate with industry clusters in aviation, entertainment and telecommunications. Daily a new mega-business moves into the already jam-packed business sector and this year Dallas was named the top city for corporate relocations, according to the mayor.
“I’m proud to see Dallas recognized as the top city in America for business headquarter relocations. This distinction should come as no surprise — Dallas has been on an economic winning streak in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down heading into 2025,” said Mayor Eric Johnson in a release following the announcement. “Texas has rightly earned its reputation as the ideal state to do business, and this recognition reinforces Dallas as the best city not just in Texas, but in the entire nation for businesses.”
Suffice it to say, the region is considered “business friendly”. But with all that business comes a whole lot of work. A survey from WalltHub found that Dallas is the fourth-hardest working city in the country, other North Texas cities make up five of the top 16. The top-ranked Texas city was Irving, coming in ahead of Dallas in the third position.
“One consequence of Irving residents’ hard work is the fact that they have a much lower amount of leisure time compared to people in most cities, the sixth-least in the nation,” said the study. “While Irving workers should be applauded for their dedication, it’s also important to avoid overwork and take some time to relax.”
Americans as a whole work a lot, clocking an average of 1,799 hours per year.
“Hard work is the backbone of America’s economy and a big reason why the country has become so successful, as Americans outwork people in many other developed economies,” said a WalletHub analyst, Chip Lupo, in the study.
Arlington (No. 10), Plano (No. 13), Fort Worth (No. 16) and Garland (No. 21) were also included on the WalletHub list.
The American work ethic has been the topic of mass debate, and there’s been a recent call for shortened work weeks. In 2024, two Democratic senators introduced a bill to shorten the standard work week from 40 to 32 hours. The bill did not pass, and a greater national trend shows motion in the other direction, as more and more companies return to the office.
Dallas leads the charge in the return to office life, and several companies are ramping back to the typical 5-day in-office work week. But since the end of COVID-19 and the return to office life, employees are reporting higher rates of burnout, according to Forbes.
“The biggest change has come from the Work From Home (WFH) phenomenon,” Gaurav Khanna, an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego, said to WalletHub. “During Covid, many employees realized that they really enjoy working from home… There seem[s] to be little concrete work showing WFH reduces productivity; but it does seem to improve employee satisfaction.”
