Photo: David Prasad from Welches, OR., United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Greenfield has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
Jobs and income earn Greenfield B; getting around on foot earns it B+. There are 3,186 jobs in Greenfield; 6,258 of its residents have a job. 4% of workers have no commute at all; California has 17%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Greenfield
Greenfield makes and builds things
54% of the jobs based in Greenfield are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Greenfield residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 37%. The jobs ↓
Greenfield’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Greenfield is Salinas, 33 miles away as the crow flies. 15% of working residents (923) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Greenfield
64% of Greenfield residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 37% of the jobs based in Greenfield pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 85% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Few Greenfield workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 17% across California. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Commutes from Greenfield are quick
The average trip to work takes 24 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical California 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.
How Greenfield earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Greenfield is better than 56% of U.S. towns, #450 of 847 in California. Unemployment holds Greenfield’s grade up (2.6%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 34% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Greenfield could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
Goods jobs make up 54% of work in Greenfield
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Greenfield, 2013 → 2023: 2,925 → 3,186. 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 Greenfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Greenfield commutes
About 33% 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.
The trip to work from Greenfield: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Greenfield workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,756 commuters (the 4% 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.
A workday in Greenfield: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 5,302 residents head out to work, 956 work right here, and 2,230 people come in from elsewhere.
About 18,000 people are in Greenfield on a workday afternoon, 15% 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.
15% of working residents work in Salinas
Where Greenfield clocks in
15% of workers
9% of workers
6% 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.
Getting around Greenfield: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Greenfield is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns, #532 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.2% 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 8,045 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 48% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 10% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 3.7% of Greenfield households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Greenfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,079th of 1,787: where Greenfield ranks among U.S. towns of 15,000 to 29,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Wolf Trap VA | 15,858 | $250K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 116 | Coto de Caza CA | 15,190 | $244K | 3.0% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 161 | Lafayette CA | 25,313 | $228K | 2.9% | 4.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,077 | Sun City West AZ | 27,425 | $64K | 7.6% | 3.8% | 9% | B |
| 1,078 | Mundy Township MI | 15,468 | $79K | 8.3% | 5.9% | 5% | B |
| 1,079 | Greenfield CA | 21,138 | $85K | 11.4% | 2.6% | 15% | B |
| 1,080 | Shelbyville KY | 18,453 | $76K | 14.5% | 3.5% | 19% | B |
| 1,081 | Kent OH | 27,737 | $43K | 27.1% | 11.2% | 14% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,787 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Greenfield, the top three, the last and three more from California.
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 Greenfield: questions
What is the median household income in Greenfield?
$84,740 (±$6,965) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Greenfield?
11.4%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Greenfield?
24 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Greenfield work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salinas (15%, 33 mi), Soledad (9%, 9 mi), San Jose (6%, 74 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Greenfield walkable?
Greenfield is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 10.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Greenfield without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 10% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Greenfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Greenfield
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.