Photo: NHRHS2010 · CC BY-SA 3.0Los Alamos has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
The two grades for Los Alamos are B+ for jobs and income and A for walkability. Employers in Los Alamos report 273 jobs for 541 working residents. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 0.5 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 2.4 in Santa Maria.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Los Alamos stands out on work
Commutes from Los Alamos are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical California worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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 ↓
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 541 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Los Alamos’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Los Alamos is better than 66% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Los Alamos’ grade up (2.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 33% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (6.0%) is left out: Los Alamos’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Los Alamos could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Getting to work from Los Alamos takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Los Alamos workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 518 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Los Alamos
About 34% 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.
Who commutes out of Los Alamos, and who commutes in
On a workday 522 residents head out to work, 19 work right here, and 254 people come in from elsewhere.
About 900 people are in Los Alamos 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.
7% of working residents work in Santa Barbara
Where Los Alamos clocks in
7% 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.
What Los Alamos’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Los Alamos, 2013 → 2023: 23 → 273. 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 Los Alamos’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Los Alamos is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Los Alamos is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Los Alamos near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 606 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 79% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 50% 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). 0.0% of Los Alamos households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Los Alamos’ commuters take a bus or train.
Los Alamos is 848th of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Castle Hill CA | 1,026 | $250K | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| 15 | Acalanes Ridge CA | 1,006 | $181K | 1.5% | 7.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 846 | Cuartelez NM | 1,512 | $114K | 5.6% | 20.8% | 0% | B+ |
| 847 | Cottage City MD | 1,329 | $81K | 15.0% | 6.6% | <1% | B+ |
| 848 | Los Alamos CA | 1,163 | $79K | 2.8% | 6.0% | 4% | B+ |
| 849 | Seville FL | 1,014 | $143K | 4.7% | 5.5% | 3% | B+ |
| 850 | Kempner TX | 1,297 | $75K | 2.5% | 5.3% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Los Alamos, 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 Los Alamos: questions
What is the median household income in Los Alamos?
$79,167 (±$21,259) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Los Alamos?
2.8%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Los Alamos?
19 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Los Alamos work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Santa Barbara (7%, 40 mi), Solvang (6%, 13 mi), Santa Maria (6%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Los Alamos walkable?
Los Alamos is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Los Alamos without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Los Alamos, from the people who make the trip.
More of Los Alamos
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.