Workin’ it

Dallas suburb plugs into No. 1 spot in ranking of best cities for remote workers

Gotta love that WFH life.

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If you’re a remote worker living in Frisco, you might just want to stay put. A new ranking puts Frisco atop the list of the best cities in the U.S. for remote workers.

But it isn’t the only North Texas city to make the cut. Three other local places show up in the ranking: Dallas (No. 3), Arlington (No. 4), and Plano (No. 8).

DFW’s showing on the list stands in contrast to a recent report ranking Dallas as the U.S. city with the unhappiest workers and Texas as the state with the unhappiest workers. (Maybe more employers should allow people to work from home?)

For its remote-work ranking, Austin-based outdoor services provider LawnStarter examined data for 194 of the biggest U.S. cities covering 20 factors, including remote job opportunities, internet connectivity, cost of living, and availability of personal workspace.

Frisco scores particularly well in the workspace (No. 1), opportunity (No. 7), and safety (No. 7) categories.

Earlier this year, Frisco grabbed the No. 3 spot on SmartAsset’s list of the best cities to work from home, with Austin at No. 9.

Jeff Herman, editor in chief at LawnStarter, tells CultureMap that Plano benefits from a first-place tie for the best broadband coverage, while Plano clinches the No. 1 ranking for the lowest crime rate.

Overall, the state’s lack of an income tax and solid quality of life boosted all of the Texas cities in the top 20, he says.

Herman, who lives in Dallas, says that “some of the best cities for working remotely are just a short drive away from me. I just hope the power stays on if there is a deep freeze this winter. You need lights, heat, and internet to work remotely, and that wasn’t the case for days across much of Texas last winter.”

Here are LawnStarter’s 20 best cities for remote workers:

Frisco
Naperville, Illinois
Dallas
Arlington
Atlanta
Austin
Tampa, Florida
Plano
Raleigh, North Carolina
Cincinnati
Houston
Nashville
Cary, North Carolina
Chicago
Denver
Salt Lake City
Charlotte, North Carolina
San Antonio
Arlington, Virginia
Seattle

Outside Dallas-Fort Worth, LawnStarter’s top-ranked Texas city for remote workers is Austin. It lands at No. 12 in the connectivity category and No. 14 in the convenience category.

Last year, Austin earned the top spot on a list of the world’s best cities for freelancers, many of whom work remotely. In June, Apartment List ranked Austin the sixth best U.S city for remote workers; no other Texas city appeared in the top 10.

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Jobs report

Texas ranks among 10 best states to find a job, says new report

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

You have a better chance of landing a job in Texas than in most other states.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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