Photo: Squelle · CC BY-SA 3.0Desert Shores has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Home is the office for 0% of workers; California has 17%. Desert Shores has 68 jobs, against 294 working residents. Hardly any work in Desert Shores; the top destination outside it is Salton City (9%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Desert Shores and work: the main findings
A big share show a job far from home
55% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Desert Shores than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Desert Shores fell from 507 in 2013 to 68 in 2023, −87%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Desert Shores is a place people come home to
There are 68 jobs based in Desert Shores, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Desert Shores has about 580 people in it, 28% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
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; with 294 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How many miles Desert Shores commutes
About 55% 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.
What Desert Shores’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Desert Shores, 2013 → 2023: 507 → 68. 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 Desert Shores’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Desert Shores on a workday afternoon
On a workday 292 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 66 people come in from elsewhere.
About 580 people are in Desert Shores on a workday afternoon, 28% fewer than live here.
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 Desert Shores goes to work
Where Desert Shores clocks in
7% 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.
About 28 minutes each way for Desert Shores’ commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Desert Shores workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 391 commuters (the 0% 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.
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 Desert Shores: questions
What is the median household income in Desert Shores?
$37,212 (±$32,157) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Desert Shores?
5.5%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Desert Shores?
28 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Desert Shores work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salton City (9%, 8 mi), San Diego (7%, 74 mi), Los Angeles (6%, 143 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Desert Shores without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Desert Shores, from the people who make the trip.
More of Desert Shores
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.