Photo: Jengod · CC BY 4.0Lakeside has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
Only 4% work in Lakeside itself; outside it, San Diego draws the most (36%, 13 miles). There are 4,859 jobs in Lakeside, against 10,029 working residents. For jobs and income Lakeside is better than 61% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Lakeside at work: what stands out
Lakeside makes and builds things
51% of the jobs based in Lakeside are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Lakeside residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 19%. The jobs ↓
Lakeside and San Diego trade workers both ways
San Diego is the top workplace for Lakeside residents (36%) and also where the most people who work in Lakeside come from (18% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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.
Where Lakeside’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Job access by car holds Lakeside’s grade up (ahead of 86% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (6.8%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lakeside could be anywhere from B− to A−.
Factories, building and farms: 51% of the jobs in Lakeside
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lakeside, 2013 → 2023: 4,405 → 4,859. 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 Lakeside’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where people from Lakeside work
Where Lakeside clocks in
36% of workers
10% 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.
Who leaves Lakeside for work, and who comes in
On a workday 9,579 residents head out to work, 450 work right here, and 4,409 people come in from elsewhere.
About 17,000 people are in Lakeside on a workday afternoon, 23% 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.
From Lakeside, about 26 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lakeside workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,835 commuters (the 15% 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.
How far it is to work from Lakeside
About 15% 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.
Lakeside is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.5% 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 9,253 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 70% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 8% 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). 3.5% of Lakeside households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Lakeside’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Lakeside ranks: 925th of 1,658 U.S. towns of 16,000 to 30,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Lafayette CA | 25,313 | $228K | 2.9% | 4.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 178 | La Cañada Flintridge CA | 19,480 | $242K | 3.5% | 5.0% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 923 | Taylors SC | 24,505 | $77K | 10.6% | 4.0% | 3% | B |
| 924 | New Windsor NY | 27,844 | $95K | 5.4% | 8.9% | 10% | B |
| 925 | Lakeside CA | 22,447 | $96K | 9.9% | 6.8% | 4% | B |
| 926 | Springfield Township OH | 26,958 | $81K | 10.4% | 4.4% | 9% | B |
| 927 | Middletown RI | 16,502 | $102K | 8.5% | 6.0% | 26% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,658 | 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 Lakeside, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Next door to Lakeside
The biggest share goes to Winter Gardens (2%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lakeside workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeside | – | B | A− | 26 min | $96,447 |
| Winter Gardens | 2% | B+ | A− | 26 min | $97,973 |
| Eucalyptus Hills | under 2% | A | C− | 23 min | $144,140 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lakeside’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 Lakeside: questions
What is the median household income in Lakeside?
$96,447 (±$12,511) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lakeside?
9.9%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lakeside?
26 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lakeside work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are San Diego (36%, 13 mi), El Cajon (10%, 5 mi), Santee (5%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lakeside walkable?
Lakeside is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lakeside without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 8% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lakeside, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lakeside
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.