“I only know one way of doing it, and that’s just headlong into the fight,” Kramer said in explaining the work ethic that drives him in operating I. Keating Furniture World in Minot.

Jackie Evans balances three jobs, including one that’s full-time, to make ends meet and achieve her goals.

“I’m pretty busy all the time,” the hard-working Minot woman said.

North Dakota is the hardest working state in the nation, according to a study conducted by WalletHub that looked at factors such as hours worked, multiple jobs, vacation time left on the table and volunteer hours.

Jill Schramm/MDN Behind the counter at the Clarion Hotel is just one place to find Jackie Evans, who works three jobs.

North Dakota had the second highest average work week hours, behind Alaska. It had the fourth highest employment rate and tied for third in lowest idle youth rate.

North Dakota came in first when looking at direct work factors, including work week hours, employment rate, share of households where no adults work, share of workers leaving vacation time unused, share of workers enthusiastic and committed to their jobs and rate of residents 16 to 24 years of age not in school or the workforce.

Indirect factors included average commute time, share of workers with multiple jobs, annual volunteer hours per resident and average leisure time. North Dakota ranked 39th in this category.

Evans, a Tennessee native, moved to Minot from Tulsa, Oklahoma, about two years ago with her husband, who came to work in construction. When his tools were stolen, hindering his ability to exercise his trade, she began picking up extra work.

Currently working a full-time day shift as guest service agent at the Clarion Hotel, Evans finishes in mid-afternoon and transitions to a second job, which is a government position with flexible hours that she can do from home. Typically, she puts in about 15 hours a week.

She also has been district manager for Go Calendars, and this year is taking on additional responsibility for the operations. She runs the seasonal kiosk store that opened at the end of August in Bismarck and will operate the Minot store scheduled to open Nov. 1. The Bismarck store will be open five months and the Minot store typically stays open about three months.

When she has days off at the Clarion, Evans is in Bismarck, working at the store, which is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. When she and her husband travel, it’s for work, and there’s not much down time.

“If we get one meal out, that’s our date night,” she said.

If they do take free time, she must have her phone handy to communicate with store employees when they need to reach her.

“So no movies for a while,” Evans laughed, citing theater courtesy rules regarding phones.

However, because the more hours she works, the greater her income from the stores, she has an incentive to work hard, often seven days a week. Once the Minot store opens, she expects to spend most of her late afternoon and evening hours there. Her husband also will be working there.

“I’ll be there just about every day,” she said.

Her motivation in working long hours is to set aside money for travel to be with family members who have been ill.

“I haven’t been able to get home to visit since we’ve been up here. The cost of living is a lot different up here than I expected,” she said. “So this is trying to get us money so we can visit our families.”

Family also is behind Kramer’s penchant for work.

“I can remember back when I was 12 years old. My father just said, ‘You are going to work.’ So when I was 12, we started mowing lawns, doing shoveling in the wintertime, and I even would go out and work at the North Dakota State Fair,” he said. “I would work until midnight out there and then walk home.”

Kramer suggests the immigrant mentality has had an influence on the work ethic. It was part of the local heritage that – to get ahead as did your immigrant parents, grandparents or great-grandparents – there was no option but to work hard, Kramer said.

After the 1969 flood in Minot left his family facing damage repairs to their home, Kramer’s parents suggested he apply for a job at I. Keating. Kramer, then 15, was instructed to add a year to his age to ensure he would have an opportunity to get hired. Kramer recalled walking to I. Keating with a friend, Greg Flagstad.

“I came in and interviewed and they hired me. They said, ‘You don’t have a friend that’s strong that can help us, do you?’ I said, ‘Oh, yeah. In fact, he’s sitting outside waiting for me right now,'” Kramer said. “We started working the same day, 50 years ago, and we both are still here today.”

He said the mindset of working hard never left him.

“When you are striving for ownership in a business, because you see that is really the way you can help your entire family, you really work towards that goal of ownership. Then once the ownership takes place, when I bought out the Keating family, then it was a matter of survival – almost working just for the next day. So you begin the process almost all over again of building and striving and trying to achieve,” he said.

He said he never thinks about how many hours he puts in, though.

“When you babysit your grandson, it’s like this isn’t work; this is family. And it’s the same with a business. To me, it’s not work. It’s caring for the people around you – all the employees you have,” he said. “It’s taking care of your family.”

Kramer also enjoys helping out at two of his favorite places, Minot’s Oak and Roosevelt Parks, and he volunteers as a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church. He might conduct a 7 a.m. service before arriving at the store, but again, he doesn’t consider it work.

“It all feels like just fun that goes by way too fast,” he said.

His parents impressed upon their children that God calls them to serve in some way, Kramer said.

“They instilled in us to serve the community you live in because we are well served by those who work in the community. So we should try to serve them in return,” he said.

The average North Dakotan volunteers about 26 hours a year, using up some of the six hours of leisure time they average every day, according to WalletHub.

The top leisure state was West Virginia, which also had the highest idle youth rate and second lowest employment rate. Utah residents worked the shortest work weeks but also tied with Oregon as the top state in highest annual volunteer hours per resident.

WalletHub compiled data using various sources, such as the Census Bureau and labor market statistics.

Americas put in an average of 1,780 hours of work a year (34 hours a week), based on information from the World Economic Forum. That’s about 425 hours more per year than Germans work and about 370 hours less than Mexicans work.

North Dakotans have plenty of opportunity to work, according to labor force statistics from Job Service North Dakota. Looking at online postings alone, North Dakota had 13,711 job openings in August.

Job Service’s latest quarterly report, from January through March of 2019, listed total job numbers at 413,228, a gain of 6,466 from the same quarter in 2018. Cass County led the way in largest numeric increase in employment from a year ago, adding 2,161 jobs, followed by McKenzie with 1,923 new jobs and Williams with 1,867 jobs.