Having a job you hate – whether your dislike is due to long hours, bad pay, or frustrating colleagues – can wreak havoc on the rest of your life. It’s bad enough when a work day is filled with irritating events, but when work creates issues that follow you home, it may be time to search for a new job.
During the pandemic, there was a wave of people leaving their positions – a phenomenon that some labeled The Great Resignation. Experts, including Professor Anthony Klotz who coined the term, believed that the phenomenon would come to an end by the start of 2024. A study from LinkedIn (MSFT) and Microsoft, however, revealed that 46% of people wanted to quit their jobs this year, up from 40% in 2021.
There’s a variety of reasons why employees want to leave their positions. Despite efforts made to embrace women in the workplace, for example, nearly half of all women still reported experiencing sexist microaggressions at work in 2024, according to McKinsey & Company’s “Women in the Workplace” report.
“Microaggressions take a heavy toll,” the report read. “Women who experience them are more likely to feel burned out and to consider quitting their jobs and less likely to view their workplaces as equitable.”
If poor workplace conditions are making you contemplate going back on the job market, it might be worth considering whether the state you live in is hindering your ability to find fulfilling and lucrative employment.
A recent analysis, commissioned by Vaziri Law Group Personal Injury Attorneys, assessed all 50 states to determine which had the worst working conditions. The analysis looked at factors including disposable income, average commute time, average hours worked per week, workplace safety rank, and overall happiness.
Continue reading to see which states have the worst working conditions.
South Carolina came in tenth place – the Palmetto State did well in the analysis’ workplace safety ranking, but received poor marks for income and work-life balance.
Arizona received mediocre scores across several categories – including disposable income and happiness – resulting in its status as the ninth worst state to work in.
West Virginia is the eighth worst state to work in, scoring the worst of any state on both workplace safety and happiness.
Indiana is the seventh worst state to work in, with its poor performance largely attributable to long working hours and relatively low disposable income.
Vermont has the best workplace safety rating in the country, but its lower than average disposable income and happiness index mean that it is still the sixth worst state to work in.
Nevadans have relatively low disposable incomes and longer-than-average work weeks, contributing to the Silver State’s fifth place ranking.
Kentucky is the fourth worst state to work in, due to its long work week and low happiness index.
Tennessee scored well in the workplace safety category but received lower than average marks for disposable income and the length of the work week, leading to its third place finish.
Louisiana is the second worst state for working conditions. With an average work week of 44.3 hours, Louisianans work more than anyone else in the country – while also having a poor workplace safety rating and a low happiness index.
Despite having the highest happiness index of any state in the top ten, Hawai’i is still the worst state to work in. This is largely due to the archipelago’s extremely low levels of disposable income compared to virtually every other state.
The post The 10 worst states in America to work in appeared first on Quartz.
