Photo: Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0Palermo has higher unemployment (10.6%) than 95% of U.S. towns
Only 4% work in Palermo itself; outside it, Oroville draws the most (26%, 5 miles). Jobs and income earn Palermo D; getting around on foot earns it C. Household incomes here are lower than in 87% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Palermo and work: the main findings
A lot of Palermo works one town over
34% of working residents work in a town that borders Palermo: Oroville (26%), Oroville East (5%) and South Oroville (3%). Next door ↓
Palermo is a place people come home to
There are 355 jobs based in Palermo, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% 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.
Inside Palermo’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Palermo is better than 5% of U.S. towns, #814 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Palermo’s grade up (ahead of 23% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Palermo could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Palermo on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,526 residents head out to work, 67 work right here, and 288 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,000 people are in Palermo on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
0.22 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The distance from Palermo to work
About 30% 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.
Commuting out of Palermo: the destinations
Where Palermo clocks in
26% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 33% of the jobs in Palermo
355 jobs are based in Palermo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Palermo, 2013 → 2023: 265 → 355. 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 Palermo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 29 minutes to work from Palermo
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Palermo workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,805 commuters (the 10% 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.
Driving is how Palermo gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Palermo is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns, #782 of 847 in California. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across California, on an EPA index of 5.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,003 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% 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 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). 5.0% of Palermo households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Palermo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Palermo sits among U.S. towns of 3,700 to 7,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Del Mar CA | 3,858 | $199K | 2.7% | 1.8% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Las Flores CA | 5,513 | $212K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 82 | Broadmoor CA | 4,586 | $167K | 2.5% | 2.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,446 | Hohenwald TN | 4,151 | $51K | 20.4% | 8.0% | 30% | D |
| 3,447 | Rumford ME | 6,025 | $38K | 22.6% | 5.4% | 23% | D |
| 3,448 | Palermo CA | 5,266 | $51K | 20.1% | 10.6% | 4% | D |
| 3,449 | Edgefield SC | 4,182 | $40K | 31.4% | 12.4% | 9% | D |
| 3,450 | Lake City SC | 5,940 | $34K | 25.7% | 9.7% | 11% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,582 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Palermo, the top three, the last and three more from California.
34% of Palermo works in a town next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Palermo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palermo | – | D | C | 29 min | $50,588 |
| Oroville East | 5% | C+ | D | 29 min | $94,512 |
| South Oroville | 3% | D | C | 23 min | $65,409 |
| Oroville | 26% | D | B+ | 20 min | $52,270 |
| Bangor | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Bangor: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Oroville. Darker towns draw more of Palermo’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 Palermo: questions
What is the median household income in Palermo?
$50,588 (±$13,082) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Palermo?
20.1%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Palermo?
29 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Palermo work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Oroville (26%, 5 mi), Chico (10%, 28 mi), Oroville East (5%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Palermo walkable?
Palermo is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Palermo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Palermo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Palermo
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.