Lubbock, El Paso Recognized Among Cities With the Best Work-Life Balance
February 21, 2018 | Texas Tech University & TTUHSC El Paso
Smart Asset, a financial technology company aiming to provide the best personal financial advice on the web, evaluated data on employment, home affordability and lifestyle to find the cities across the nation with the best work-life balance.
The publication looked at data for the 100 largest cities in the country and compared them across 10 metrics: the concentration of entertainment establishments, bars and restaurants, housing costs, home values, average weeks worked, average hours worked, average commute times, percent with long commutes, unemployment rate, and labor force participation rate.
Lubbock ranked No. 4 out of all cities evaluated. The city’s low average commute of 16 minutes and low unemployment rate (2.6 percent) are two key reasons the city ranked highly. Lubbock has a restaurant density of 7.1 percent and an average of 27.1 percent for housing as percent of income; both metrics are even with the No. 1 ranked city’s metrics in these categories.
El Paso ranked No. 24 on the list with 8.6 percent restaurant density and an average 27.6 percent in housing as percent of income. The city has an unemployment rate of 4.4 percent and an average commute time of 23 minutes.