Photo: Visitor7 · CC BY-SA 3.0Palm Springs has 1.8 jobs for every working resident: 21,929 people commute in to work
For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 3.9 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 4.3 in Riverside. Palm Springs has 26,237 jobs for 14,696 working residents. Jobs and income earn Palm Springs C+; getting around on foot earns it A.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Palm Springs
Palm Springs is where the jobs are
Palm Springs has 26,237 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Palm Springs are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 29 across California. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical California worker. Time on the road ↓
Home offices are common in Palm Springs
26% of Palm Springs workers work from home, against 17% across California. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
36% 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Income, poverty and work: Palm Springs’ grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Palm Springs is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #610 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Palm Springs’ grade up (ahead of 61% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (7.7%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Palm Springs could be anywhere from C to C+.
Palm Springs fills up on a workday
On a workday 10,388 residents head out to work and 4,308 work right here.
About 57,000 people are in Palm Springs on a workday afternoon, 25% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Getting to work from Palm Springs takes about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Palm Springs workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 14,295 commuters (the 26% 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 Palm Springs goes to work
About 36% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Where Palm Springs’s workers come from
Where Palm Springs clocks in
6% 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 Palm Springs’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Palm Springs, 2014 → 2024: 24,202 → 26,237. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Palm Springs’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Good to walk, short on transit: Palm Springs
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Palm Springs is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns, #205 of 847 in California. Both inputs place Palm Springs 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 19,307 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 84% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 2% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 3.9 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 80% 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). 7.1% of Palm Springs households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Palm Springs’ commuters take a bus or train.
Palm Springs is 778th of 953 U.S. towns of 32,000 to 61,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Arlington OH | 35,893 | $155K | 3.3% | 2.0% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Manhattan Beach CA | 33,122 | $204K | 4.5% | 3.8% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Cupertino CA | 58,333 | $235K | 4.1% | 4.0% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 93 | Newark CA | 47,895 | $169K | 4.3% | 4.3% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 776 | Bremerton WA | 45,482 | $75K | 13.8% | 5.7% | 19% | C+ |
| 777 | Moline IL | 42,362 | $68K | 15.5% | 6.8% | 20% | C+ |
| 778 | Palm Springs CA | 45,315 | $73K | 11.8% | 7.7% | 29% | C+ |
| 779 | North Miami FL | 60,884 | $57K | 18.9% | 6.0% | 4% | C+ |
| 780 | Grand Island NE | 53,943 | $64K | 15.2% | 4.6% | 64% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 953 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 25% | 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 Palm Springs, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Work next door: 10% of Palm Springs’ workers
The biggest share goes to Rancho Mirage (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Palm Springs workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palm Springs | – | C+ | A | 22 min | $73,119 |
| Cathedral City | 4% | C+ | A− | 20 min | $73,572 |
| Desert Hot Springs | under 2% | C− | A | 29 min | $52,761 |
| Rancho Mirage | 6% | B− | B+ | 25 min | $107,364 |
| Whitewater | under 2% | C− | D− | 34 min | $77,898 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Palm Springs’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 2024, 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 Palm Springs: questions
What is the median household income in Palm Springs?
$73,119 (±$3,423) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Palm Springs?
11.8%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Palm Springs?
22 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 26% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Palm Springs work?
29% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Palm Desert (6%, 11 mi), Rancho Mirage (6%, 7 mi), Cathedral City (4%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Palm Springs walkable?
Palm Springs is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Palm Springs without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 2% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Palm Springs, from the people who make the trip.
More of Palm Springs
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.