Los Cerritos Ranch House · Photo: Dan Cathcart, photographer · Public domainUnemployment in Long Beach (6.5%) is higher than in 78% of U.S. towns
About one in five work in Long Beach; the top destination outside it is Los Angeles (16%, 22 miles). For jobs and income Long Beach is better than 55% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (A). Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 2.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 17.5 in Los Angeles.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Long Beach, in brief
Why Long Beach gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Job access by car holds Long Beach’s grade up (ahead of 98% 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, Long Beach could be anywhere from B− to B.
Out of Long Beach to work: where people go
Where Long Beach clocks in
3% of workers
3% 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 Long Beach for work, and who comes in
On a workday 146,308 residents head out to work, 38,822 work right here, and 115,658 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 (0.83 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.
What work there is in Long Beach: 154,480 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Long Beach, 2013 → 2023: 148,577 → 154,480. 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 Long Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 30 minutes from Long Beach
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Long Beach workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 190,236 commuters (the 16% 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.
Where in the region Long Beach works
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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Long Beach
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 226,908 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 44% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 22% 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). 8.9% of Long Beach households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 5% of Long Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
Out of 38 U.S. towns of 315,000 to 608,000, Long Beach comes 16th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Islip NY | 340,867 | $130K | 6.4% | 4.5% | 28% | A |
| 2 | Brookhaven NY | 496,410 | $120K | 7.0% | 5.2% | 32% | A− |
| 3 | Virginia Beach VA | 453,737 | $93K | 8.6% | 4.0% | 47% | A− |
| 4 | Irvine CA | 318,764 | $137K | 10.8% | 5.9% | 29% | B+ |
| 5 | Santa Ana CA | 315,586 | $94K | 10.8% | 4.8% | 18% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Anaheim CA | 341,008 | $95K | 12.4% | 5.8% | 17% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Colorado Springs CO | 494,743 | $85K | 9.0% | 5.6% | 63% | B |
| 15 | Omaha NE | 488,797 | $73K | 13.5% | 4.2% | 73% | B |
| 16 | Long Beach CA | 450,469 | $87K | 14.8% | 6.5% | 21% | B |
| 17 | Arlington TX | 402,134 | $75K | 12.9% | 5.7% | 22% | B− |
| 18 | Sacramento CA | 536,449 | $87K | 13.9% | 6.6% | 39% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Cleveland OH | 363,608 | $41K | 30.6% | 10.8% | 42% | C− |
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 Long Beach, the top three, the last and three more from California.
The towns next door employ 18% of Long Beach
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Long Beach workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Beach | – | B | A | 30 min | $87,430 |
| Lakewood | under 2% | A | A− | 28 min | $119,177 |
| Hawaiian Gardens | under 2% | B | A | 27 min | $76,341 |
| Carson | 2% | B+ | A | 28 min | $108,703 |
| Compton | under 2% | C+ | A | 31 min | $78,465 |
| Los Angeles | 16% | B− | A+ | 31 min | $81,939 |
| Seal Beach | under 2% | B+ | A | 29 min | $85,964 |
| Paramount | under 2% | B | A | 28 min | $75,250 |
| Los Alamitos | under 2% | B | A | 31 min | $97,155 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Los Angeles. Darker towns draw more of Long Beach’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 Long Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Long Beach?
$87,430 (±$2,036) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Long Beach?
14.8%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Long Beach?
30 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Long Beach work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Los Angeles (16%, 22 mi), Torrance (3%, 11 mi), Irvine (3%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Long Beach walkable?
Long Beach is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 11.6 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Long Beach without a car?
5% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 22% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Long Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Long Beach
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.