Cowtown Coup

Downtown Fort Worth racks up another award for urban excellence

Sundance Square Plaza, with its new buildings, fountains and giant umbrellas, received the Downtown Pinnacle Award from the International Downtown Association.

Sundance Square Plaza/Facebook

Downtown Fort Worth has long been considered an exemplar of great urban living, and last year's addition of Sundance Square Plaza has bolstered its case: The Washington, D.C.-based International Downtown Association (IDA) has bestowed its Downtown Pinnacle Award to the plaza.

Entered in the category of Downtown Leadership and Management, which showcases comprehensive and unique organizational approaches, projects or programs that improved the effectiveness of downtown management organizations, Sundance Square Plaza came out on top in a group of 10 entries.

Although Sundance Square was already established as a destination, it became even more so after its two square blocks were joined together with two new buildings surrounding a plaza featuring, among other things, a popular ground water fountain and four giant umbrellas.

“The addition of the plaza created a centerpiece in downtown Fort Worth that has quickly become a destination for North Texas residents and visitors from all around the world,” said Johnny Campbell, president and CEO of Sundance Square, in a statement. “Sundance Square Plaza is a treasure for our city and the response to the pedestrian-friendly plaza has been overwhelmingly positive.”

“The Sundance Square Plaza is a wonderful example for all cities to emulate,” said David Downey, president and CEO of IDA, a champion for vital and livable urban centers that strives to inform, influence and inspire downtown leaders and advocates.

The IDA award is just the latest in a series of accolades for downtown Fort Worth. A survey by Livability.com earlier in 2014 ranked it as the No. 1 downtown area in the entire United States.

unspecified

working hard

Texas clocks in as one of America's 10 hardest working states for 2026

Photo by Greeshma Gangadharan on Unsplash

Texas has been one of the top 10 hardest-working states in the country for almost a decade.

Texans pride themselves on being industrious, and a new report has confirmed Texas as one of the 10 most hardworking states in America in 2026.

The Lone Star State claimed the No. 7 spot this year in a slight dip from its 2025 ranking, where it appeared in the top five. Texas last ranked 7th in 2024, but the state has consistently appeared among the top 10 for nearly a decade.

WalletHub determined the rankings after analyzing 10 "direct" and "indirect" work factors across all 50 states, and then graded each metric on a 100-point scale, where a score of 100 signified the "hardest working." Analysts then examined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

There was only a 10.32-point difference between Texas and South Dakota, who claimed the top spot as America's hardest working state in 2026 with a score of 64.59 out of a possible 100 points.

Texas ranked 6th nationally in the "direct" work factors category, which examined the following six metrics:

The state's average workweek hours.
Employment rates.
The share of households where no adults work.
The share of workers leaving vacation time unused.
The share of "engaged" workers — those that are "involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace," as defined by Gallup.
The rate of "idle youth" — individuals aged 18-24 who are not currently enrolled in school, not working, and have no degree beyond a high school diploma or GED.

Texas ties with Louisiana for the second highest average workweek hours nationwide, with Alaska topping the list with the No. 1 longest workweeks in America. Alaska is the only state where workers clock in more than 40 hours per week at their jobs, with WalletHub reporting Alaskans work 41.4 hours on average weekly.

In the "indirect" work factors category — which encompassed workers' average commute times, the share of workers with multiple jobs, annual volunteer hours per resident, and the average leisure time spent per day — Texas ranked 36th nationwide.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Texas in three individual metrics:

No. 10 – Average commute times
No. 20 – Average leisure time spent per day
No. 30 – Employment rates

According to the World Economic Forum, Americans clock in about 1,800 hours at work per year on average, which is 468 more hours per year than workers in Germany. And many are leaving vacation time on the table, WalletHub says.

"Even when given the chance to take time off, many Americans won’t, as nearly half of workers don't expect to use all of their allotted vacation days," the report said. "It is possible to work hard without overdoing it, though. Hard work is key to success, and the residents of some states understand that better than others."

Source: WalletHub

The top 10 hardest working states in America in 2026 are:

No. 1 – South Dakota
No. 2 – North Dakota
No. 3 – Alaska
No. 4 – Hawaii
No. 5 – Wyoming
No. 6 – Nebraska
No. 7 – Texas
No. 8 – New Hampshire
No. 9 – Tennessee
No. 10 – Georgia

texas reports labor day wallethub