Piñon Hills has some of the highest unemployment in the country: 19.4%
Working residents average 49 minutes each way (California 29, U.S. 26). The two grades for Piñon Hills are D for jobs and income and D for walkability. Only 3% work in Piñon Hills; the top destination outside it is Los Angeles (7%, 54 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Piñon Hills, in brief
Piñon Hills workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 49 minutes each way, against 29 across California. Over a year that’s about 376 hours of commuting, 153 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
No single place dominates Piñon Hills’ commute
The biggest draw, Los Angeles, gets only 7% of working residents, and 63% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Piñon Hills residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Piñon Hills makes and builds things
36% of the jobs based in Piñon Hills are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Piñon Hills residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 19%. The jobs ↓
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.
Inside Piñon Hills’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Piñon Hills is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #811 of 847 in California. Household income holds Piñon Hills’ grade up ($68,289, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Piñon Hills could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Commuting from Piñon Hills: about 49 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 15.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Piñon Hills workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,786 commuters (the 17% 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.
The places Piñon Hills commutes to
Where Piñon Hills clocks in
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.
Factories, building and farms: 36% of the jobs in Piñon Hills
338 jobs are based in Piñon Hills.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Piñon Hills, 2014 → 2024: 221 → 338. 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 Piñon Hills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Piñon Hills
On a workday 1,957 residents head out to work, 56 work right here, and 282 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,400 people are in Piñon Hills on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
0.17 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 2024, primary jobs.
Near or far: the trip to work from Piñon Hills
About 26% 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.
Getting around Piñon Hills: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Piñon Hills is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns, #827 of 847 in California. Both inputs place Piñon Hills 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 2,162 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 0.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 45% 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). 1.4% of Piñon Hills households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Piñon Hills’ commuters take a bus or train.
Piñon Hills next to U.S. towns of 4,900 to 9,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Las Flores CA | 5,513 | $212K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Gold River CA | 7,924 | $175K | 2.9% | 2.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 116 | La Habra Heights CA | 5,327 | $180K | 4.9% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,111 | Eunice LA | 9,035 | $35K | 33.2% | 8.6% | 21% | D |
| 3,112 | Sidney NY | 5,391 | $52K | 19.7% | 8.6% | 21% | D |
| 3,113 | Piñon Hills CA | 7,065 | $68K | 18.6% | 19.4% | 3% | D |
| 3,114 | Columbia MS | 6,525 | $39K | 24.5% | 8.3% | 39% | D |
| 3,115 | Hoquiam WA | 8,710 | $50K | 17.2% | 10.0% | 13% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,227 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Piñon Hills, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Piñon Hills and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Phelan (5%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Piñon Hills workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piñon Hills | – | D | D | 49 min | $68,289 |
| Phelan | 5% | C− | B− | 47 min | $79,914 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Piñon Hills’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 Piñon Hills: questions
What is the median household income in Piñon Hills?
$68,289 (±$14,569) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Piñon Hills?
18.6%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Piñon Hills?
49 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Piñon Hills work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Los Angeles (7%, 54 mi), San Bernardino (6%, 28 mi), Phelan (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Piñon Hills walkable?
Piñon Hills is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Piñon Hills without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Piñon Hills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Piñon Hills
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.