New report proves Texans work harder than almost anyone else in U.S.

SERIOUSLY, TAKE A BREAK

Workers in the Lone Star State put in more hours and take less vacation time than most of America. Photo by gguy44/Getty Images

Texans don't just work hard, they work harder than almost anyone else in the nation, according to a new study.

Just in time for Labor Day, WalletHub has revealed the hardest-working states for 2019, and Texas lands at No. 4, meaning only three states — North Dakota, Alaska, and South Dakota — work harder. To determine the ranking, the personal finance site reviewed a host of factors, from average workweek, commute time, and leisure time to employment rates and the share of workers with multiple jobs.

In Texas, where 96 percent of the labor force has a job, workers stay on the clock an average of 40 hours a week. While that might seem pretty standard, somehow, that makes us the state with the fourth-longest workweek.

And those hardworking Texans could use a break. Surprisingly, 29 percent of the state's workers don't use all of their vacation time. One contributing factor could be the state's high percentage of engaged workers (35 percent), described in the study as "involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace."

As we know, work doesn't just start and end at your desk. WalletHub also measured workers' commute times, volunteer hours, and leisure time, which it categorized as indirect work factors.

In Texas, workers regularly travel about 26 minutes one way for their jobs, and despite their long workweeks, they make time to volunteer for 27 hours each year on average. In regards to work-life balance, Texans set aside almost six hours a day for leisure time. That may sound ample, but workers in 19 other states spend even more time relaxing.

This isn't the only recent study to call attention to how much time Texans spend on the clock.

A recent report from mobile technology company Kisi named Houston, where workers clock 43.7 hours a week, the second most overworked city in the U.S., second only to Washington, D.C. Austin also shot to the top of the list, with workers laboring 43.5 hours a week, followed by San Antonio (43.1 hours) and Dallas (42.9 hours).

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Houston researchers make headway on affordable, sustainable sodium-ion battery

Energy Solutions

A new study by researchers from Rice University’s Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Baylor University and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram has introduced a solution that could help develop more affordable and sustainable sodium-ion batteries.

The findings were recently published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The team worked with tiny cone- and disc-shaped carbon materials from oil and gas industry byproducts with a pure graphitic structure. The forms allow for more efficient energy storage with larger sodium and potassium ions, which is a challenge for anodes in battery research. Sodium and potassium are more widely available and cheaper than lithium.

“For years, we’ve known that sodium and potassium are attractive alternatives to lithium,” Pulickel Ajayan, the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor of Engineering at Rice, said in a news release. “But the challenge has always been finding carbon-based anode materials that can store these larger ions efficiently.”

Lithium-ion batteries traditionally rely on graphite as an anode material. However, traditional graphite structures cannot efficiently store sodium or potassium energy, since the atoms are too big and interactions become too complex to slide in and out of graphite’s layers. The cone and disc structures “offer curvature and spacing that welcome sodium and potassium ions without the need for chemical doping (the process of intentionally adding small amounts of specific atoms or molecules to change its properties) or other artificial modifications,” according to the study.

“This is one of the first clear demonstrations of sodium-ion intercalation in pure graphitic materials with such stability,” Atin Pramanik, first author of the study and a postdoctoral associate in Ajayan’s lab, said in the release. “It challenges the belief that pure graphite can’t work with sodium.”

In lab tests, the carbon cones and discs stored about 230 milliamp-hours of charge per gram (mAh/g) by using sodium ions. They still held 151 mAh/g even after 2,000 fast charging cycles. They also worked with potassium-ion batteries.

“We believe this discovery opens up a new design space for battery anodes,” Ajayan added in the release. “Instead of changing the chemistry, we’re changing the shape, and that’s proving to be just as interesting.”

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This story originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

TMC med-tech company closes $2.5M series A, plans expansion

fresh funding

Insight Surgery, a United Kingdom-based startup that specializes in surgical technology, has raised $2.5 million in a series A round led by New York City-based life sciences investor Nodenza Venture Partners. The company launched its U.S. business in 2023 with the opening of a cleanroom manufacturing facility at Houston’s Texas Medical Center.

The startup says the investment comes on the heels of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granting clearance to the company’s surgical guides for orthopedic surgery. Insight says the fresh capital will support its U.S. expansion, including one new manufacturing facility at an East Coast hospital and another at a West Coast hospital.

Insight says the investment “will provide surgeons with rapid access to sophisticated tools that improve patient outcomes, reduce risk, and expedite recovery.”

Insight’s proprietary digital platform, EmbedMed, digitizes the surgical planning process and allows the rapid design and manufacturing of patient-specific guides for orthopedic surgery.

“Our mission is to make advanced surgical planning tools accessible and scalable across the U.S. healthcare system,” Insight CEO Henry Pinchbeck said in a news release. “This investment allows us to accelerate our plan to enable every orthopedic surgeon in the U.S. to have easy access to personalized surgical devices within surgically meaningful timelines.”

Ross Morton, managing Partner at Nodenza, says Insight’s “disruptive” technology may enable the company to become “the leader in the personalized surgery market.”

The startup recently entered a strategic partnership with Ricoh USA, a provider of information management and digital services for businesses. It also has forged partnerships with the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, University of Chicago Medicine, University of Florida Health and UAB Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama.

2 Houston suburbs named among 10 best places to live by U.S. News & World Report

Where to Live

The Houston suburbs of Pearland and League City have landed among the top 10 best places to live in 2025, according to U.S. News & World Report.

New for the 2025-2026 "Best Places to Live in the U.S." rankings, U.S. News expanded its coverage from 150 to 250 U.S. cities, and updated its methodology to examine each city based on five livability indexes: Quality of life, value, desirability, job market, and net migration.

Pearland ranked No. 3 nationwide, earning a 7.0 score alongside No. 1-winning Johns Creek, Georgia and No. 2 winner Carmel, Indiana.

Pearland also landed on top of U.S. News separate rankings of the best places to live in Texas for 2025-2026.

Some facts about Pearland that put it at the top of the list include its median household income ($115,504), its median home values ($319,753), and its bustling population of nearly 124,000 residents.

Housing costs in Pearland are extremely attractive compared to other places in the country, as the national average home is worth over $370,000. It's no wonder this Houston neighbor has been adding more high-income households than many other places in Texas.

Pearland's population is a healthy mix of young individuals and families, with 29 percent of residents under 20 years old and 36 percent of the population between the ages of 20-44. Nearly a quarter of Pearland's population is between 45-64-years-old, while only 12 percent of residents are over 65, the report says.

Pearland's reputation as one of the safest cities in America is also boosting its community appeal.

Pearland Pear TrailPearland's Pear-Scape Trail is a popular public art trail that residents, families, and visitors can enjoy. The sculptures are scattered all over the city.City of Pearland - Government/Facebook

"Finding a community to be part of can play a major role in making a place feel like home," U.S. News said. "If you’re a parent with young children, you may want to live in a neighborhood with other people in that phase of life. If you’re a professional moving to a hot job market for your field, you may want to live in an apartment close to the office or within walking distance of friends and colleagues."

Pearland also enjoys a better job market than other cities, the report added. Pearland's unemployment rate as of 2023 was only 3.6 percent, lower than the national average unemployment rate of 4.5 percent.

However, if people are looking for a public transportation-friendly city, they may need to look elsewhere. Almost all commuters in Pearland drive to their workplaces, making access to a vehicle absolutely necessary for living in the suburb. Pearland's 31.2-minute average commute time is also 9.2 minutes higher than the national average, U.S. News said.

Other Houston-area suburbs

League City ranked three spots behind Pearland as the 6th best place to live in the U.S., and No. 2 in Texas. The city boasts a median household income of $120,670, and affordable median home values at $327,511.

Workers in League City also predominantly rely on vehicles for their daily commutes, and only 3.7 percent of the population use public transport to get to work. Commuters spend an average time of 27.5 minutes driving to work, U.S. News determined.

More than half (63.5 percent) of all League City residents are married, and 54 percent of the population are between the ages of 25 and 64-years-old.

Here's how other Houston-area cities faired among the top 100:

  • No. 16 – Sugar Land
  • No. 44 – The Woodlands
  • No. 45 – Katy
  • No. 67 – Missouri City
  • No. 73 – Spring

Houston drops out of the top 100

Though Houston proper made substantial improvements to land among the top 100 best places to live in U.S. News' 2024-2025 report, the city has once again plummeted toward the bottom of the list for 2025-2026.

Houston slumped to No. 381 this year, and only ranked No. 63 in the statewide comparison, showing that the city has lost its charm in favor of its appealing suburban neighbors.

The top 10 best places to live in the U.S. are:

  • No. 1 – Johns Creek, Georgia
  • No. 2 – Carmel, Indiana
  • No. 3 – Pearland, Texas
  • No. 4 – Fishers, Indiana
  • No. 5 – Cary, North Carolina
  • No. 6 – League City, Texas
  • No. 7 – Apex, North Carolina
  • No. 8 – Leander, Texas
  • No. 9 – Rochester Hills, Michigan
  • No. 10 – Troy, Michigan
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This story originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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