Coming out of the pandemic, with working remotely still a question mark at many companies, home prices on a nonstop missile to the stratosphere and property taxes a constant consideration, determining the best and worst states to work in can be a tricky task. To do so, Peak Sales Recruiting factored in data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau, the Tax Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Specific rankings were determined using a variety of metrics:
- Annual job growth
- GDP growth
- Share of workers represented by unions
- Average hours worked per week
- Average commute time in minutes among nonremote workers
- Share of workers who work remotely
- Combined state and average local sales tax rate
- Earnings ratio, calculated as the median wage for a family of four divided by the living wage needed to support a family of four with one earner.
When the numbers were crunched, New Jersey was rated the 17th best state to work in for 2023. The Garden State did particularly well for earnings ratio (hourly and living wage). Some 16% of workers are represented by a union, and jobs grew by 1.5% over the past year. In addition, 16.7% of residents work from home; the average work week is 38.4 hours.
It could be a lot better. Oregon, which took the pole position, boasts strong union representation (16.9%), short work week (an average of 37.8 hours) and solid growth rates for jobs (2.2%) and GDP (3.8%).