Louisiana: America's Laziest State

Attention slackers! If you're sick and tired of your peers and bosses orderin' you around, move to Louisiana. It's just claimed the top spot as America's laziest state.
In Louisiana, where the humidity is as thick as the gumbo, people prefer to take it slow. Hunting, fishing, and outdoor sporting activity may have earned Louisiana the nickname "Sportsman's Paradise," but new data indicate that the more popular pastimes are sleeping, goofing off, and watching television.

In a new ranking by Businessweek.com based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Louisiana claims the top spot as the country's laziest state. To be clear, by "lazy" we do not mean lacking work ethic or engagement. Rather, it is a measure of leisure time spent doing sedentary activities compared with activities that require more physical effort, such as exercising and even working. Mississippi and Arkansas came in second and third, and while states in the south and southeast are represented heavily in the list, such East Coast states as Delaware and New York placed in the top 20.

Venessa Wong of Bloomberg Businessweek has the story: Link

Crazy, As I was waiting for the page to load, I was thinking how lazy I was, and how I really shouldn't be looking at neatorama in the middle of the day, and how I need to get a job. I live in New Orleans.
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I work in Louisiana. When I say work, I mean physically WORK everyday at a job, like most everyone else in Louisiana. At least in South Louisiana, work is almost exclusively based around physical activity for the oil industry. Because of the way that the statistics were calculated, i.e. (hours of sedentary activity)/(hours available for non-work activities), the outcome is skewed towards "lazy" if the activity required at work limits the amount of energy available for any activity.

To be fair, the sporting opportunities that are available (hunting and fishing) are less physically demanding than say, hiking in the rockies. There is simply less physical capacity required.

Additionally, the culture is more social and leans more towards regular alcohol consumption than anywhere else that I have lived and worked. This may also have a huge effect on LA's place at #1.
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I live in Louisiana, and I think a more accurate description would have been "leisurely" than "lazy." We work our asses off here. Plus, if you've ever had to drag your friend home after a drinking binge on Bourbon Street, you know what physical exertion is.
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I too live in Louisiana. It's too freaking hot and humid here to do anything outside, lol! I wish we had mountains. I've always wanted to go hiking. But then again, if we had mountains, it would still be hot so nevermind.
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Humidity is a definite activity-killer. I live in a very humid place, all year long, and I have become so sedentary, it's scary.

Can't wait to get away and go find someplace with crisp, dry, even cold, air. Whew!
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I moved to Louisiana 2 yrs ago. My friend's a contractor and builds homes and condos, etc. He says no one (the locals) down here wants to work. The folks I have met all say the same thing. There are lots of jobs to be had down here but the locals don't want to work. That's why people from other states come down here. I think the weather plays a big part with the issue. When the heat index is 110 degrees 6 months out of the year and the humidity is 90% then it's a real challenge to be out in that heat. I don't know how people survived down here before air conditioners were invented
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When it gets to 120 in the shade, you sweat just being outside and it feels like you're breathing through a hot, soaked towel, what else do you expect? I've seen people who come from out of state to work here, they normally don't last 5 years before the conditions get to them (Being born and raised in these conditions gives a slight advantage in the form of adaptation, but it's not great) not to mention the fact this is a 'fire at will' state that gives workers little hopes of recourse, and the fact these environmental conditions also do wear on our health as well, it kind of gives one a reason to want to just sit down, crack open a cold one and relax after working.

That being said, those who work their asses off down here have my respect, I'm disabled, I want to work but risk passing out just from standing too long (not from exhaustion, more from my blood pressure freaking on me) but knowing these conditions, seeing how my mother and step-father look after a hard day's work, yea, I have respect for hard workers who do manual labor.
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