Recent findings in a nationwide study found that Utah is the most “essential” state in the nation. A study by Zippia sought to find the states with the largest number of essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study describes essential workers as those who continue to work as normal while others stayed home.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, jobs have been separated into two categories: essential and nonessential,” Zippia shared. “While nonessential workers got to stay safely at home, essential workers continued to come in, day in and day out.”
In the study, essential workers were defined as healthcare workers, farming/fishing/forestry workers, production and transportation workers, and protective services, such as law enforcement. Data from the most recent United States Census was used to compile this study. The total numbers of workers in the aforementioned industries were then compared to the total number of workers in each state. The higher the percentage of these workers, the more essential the state was deemed.
“We chose the four industries above because they represent basic needs and cornerstones of American society,” Zippia shared.
After the information was compiled, Utah came out on top with the most essential workers, Zippia reported. “Utah comes in first on the list with the most essential job offerings. The healthcare and production industries are the two most essential services in Utah with 5.16% and 6.31% of its workers in those industries, respectively. Protective services only make up 0.84% and farming/fishing is only at 0.32%.”
Nevada took the second spot with Connecticut in third. Virginia and Colorado rounded out the top five. To see a complete list of states and where they rank, please click here.