Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Jobs, income and commuting in Cleveland, AL
Jobs & income B: better than 61% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability D−: more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are lower than in 56% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 29 minutes each way (Alabama 26, U.S. 26). Only 6% work in Cleveland; the top destination outside it is Birmingham (16%, 36 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Cleveland
What’s behind Cleveland’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Cleveland is better than 61% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Cleveland’s grade up (4.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 41% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.6%) is left out: Cleveland’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Cleveland could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Half of Cleveland commutes less than 31 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 17% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 462 residents head out to work, 31 work right here, and 505 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.09 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
16% of working residents work in Birmingham
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Cleveland clocks in
16% of workers
11% of workers
4% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 536 jobs in Cleveland are
536 jobs are based in Cleveland. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Cleveland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cleveland, 2013 → 2023: 459 → 536. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
About 29 minutes each way, longer than most of Alabama
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cleveland workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 526 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Alabama: 88% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Most trips from Cleveland start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cleveland is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Cleveland near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 560 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.7% of Cleveland households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cleveland’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cleveland is 1,147th of 4,866 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Cleveland, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 274 | Rock Creek AL | 1,103 | $84K | 2.5% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 294 | Blue Ridge AL | 1,190 | $128K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,145 | Leroy AL | 1,075 | $93K | 1.0% | 3.9% | 2% | B |
| 1,146 | Howe IN | 1,092 | $60K | 2.8% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,147 | Cleveland AL | 1,262 | $71K | 4.0% | 5.6% | 6% | B |
| 1,148 | Elgin MN | 1,137 | $92K | 7.6% | 5.2% | 3% | B |
| 1,149 | Dickeyville WI | 1,085 | $71K | 5.3% | 0.2% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Cleveland: questions
What is the median household income in Cleveland?
$71,328 (±$18,570) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cleveland?
4.0%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cleveland?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cleveland work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Birmingham (16%, 36 mi), Oneonta (11%, 6 mi), Blountsville (4%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cleveland walkable?
Cleveland is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cleveland without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cleveland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cleveland
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.