Photo: Ryanx7 · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Ceres (10.2%) is higher than in 95% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 6% of workers, where California as a whole has 17%. For jobs and income Ceres is better than 36% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in seven work in Ceres; the top destination outside it is Modesto (21%, 3 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Ceres
Ceres trades workers with the towns around it
Ceres has about as many jobs (15,186) as working residents (17,891), but they are mostly different people: 15,713 residents leave for work each day while 13,008 people come in. Only 14% of the jobs in Ceres are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Ceres and Modesto trade workers both ways
Modesto is the top workplace for Ceres residents (21%) and also where the most people who work in Ceres come from (22% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Ceres workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 34 minutes each way, against 29 across California. Over a year that’s about 261 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
The four measures behind Ceres’ grade
Job access by car holds Ceres’ grade up (ahead of 77% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ceres could be anywhere from C to C+.
How many people are in Ceres by day
On a workday 15,713 residents head out to work, 2,178 work right here, and 13,008 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 (0.85 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.
Where Ceres’ working residents head each day
Where Ceres clocks in
21% of workers
5% of workers
2% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
The daily trip from Ceres: about 34 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ceres workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 18,485 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across California: 79% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The 15,186 jobs based in Ceres
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ceres, 2013 → 2023: 11,680 → 15,186. 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.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Ceres’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Ceres’ workers travel
About 29% 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.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Ceres: mostly by car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 7.1% across California.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 19,611 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 99% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 51% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 71% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.3% of Ceres households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ceres’ commuters take a bus or train.
Ceres is 749th of 927 U.S. towns of 34,000 to 66,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Arlington OH | 35,893 | $155K | 3.3% | 2.0% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Cupertino CA | 58,333 | $235K | 4.1% | 4.0% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | South San Francisco CA | 64,941 | $137K | 6.7% | 2.8% | 12% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 88 | Newark CA | 47,895 | $169K | 4.3% | 4.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 747 | Elkhart IN | 54,092 | $51K | 18.2% | 3.9% | 41% | C+ |
| 748 | Channelview TX | 43,605 | $64K | 20.3% | 6.9% | 6% | C+ |
| 749 | Ceres CA | 48,982 | $79K | 15.9% | 10.2% | 12% | C+ |
| 750 | Torrington CT | 35,796 | $71K | 13.7% | 6.8% | 25% | C+ |
| 751 | Prescott AZ | 48,420 | $71K | 11.7% | 4.5% | 37% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 927 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Ceres, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Work in the towns next to Ceres
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Ceres’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Ceres: questions
What is the median household income in Ceres?
$79,025 (±$5,389) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ceres?
15.9%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ceres?
34 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ceres work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Modesto (21%, 3 mi), Turlock (5%, 9 mi), Stockton (2%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ceres walkable?
Ceres is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 13.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ceres without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 51% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ceres, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ceres
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.