Photo: Calbear22 · Public domainPrunedale has higher unemployment (8.5%) than 90% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Prunedale is ahead of 80% of U.S. towns. Jobs and income earn Prunedale B−; getting around on foot earns it C. Home is the office for 6% of workers, against 17% across California.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Prunedale in brief
Prunedale makes and builds things
61% of the jobs based in Prunedale are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Prunedale residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 26%. The jobs ↓
Prunedale and Salinas trade workers both ways
Salinas is the top workplace for Prunedale residents (17%) and also where the most people who work in Prunedale come from (21% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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.
Prunedale’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Prunedale is better than 48% of U.S. towns, #524 of 847 in California. Household income holds Prunedale’s grade up ($103,819, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Prunedale could be anywhere from C+ to B.
In Prunedale, 61% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
3,577 jobs are based in Prunedale.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prunedale, 2013 → 2023: 4,643 → 3,577. 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 Prunedale’s own residents hold wherever they work.
17% of working residents work in Salinas
Where Prunedale clocks in
17% of workers
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.
Prunedale on a workday afternoon
On a workday 7,542 residents head out to work, 461 work right here, and 3,116 people come in from elsewhere.
About 15,000 people are in Prunedale on a workday afternoon, 22% fewer than live here.
0.45 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.
Getting to work from Prunedale takes about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prunedale workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,199 commuters (the 6% 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 commute from Prunedale, by distance
About 21% 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.
For most of Prunedale, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Prunedale is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns, #794 of 847 in California. Both inputs place Prunedale 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 7,680 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 12% 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). 0.7% of Prunedale households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Prunedale’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,242nd of 1,860: where Prunedale ranks among U.S. towns of 14,000 to 27,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ada Township MI | 14,769 | $168K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 54 | Orinda CA | 19,507 | $250K | 2.2% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 92 | Alamo CA | 14,488 | $250K | 2.1% | 3.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 123 | Coto de Caza CA | 15,190 | $244K | 3.0% | 3.4% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,240 | Center Township IN | 17,577 | $60K | 12.2% | 2.7% | 31% | B− |
| 1,241 | Hermitage PA | 16,308 | $70K | 10.9% | 4.9% | 26% | B− |
| 1,242 | Prunedale CA | 19,723 | $104K | 11.1% | 8.5% | 6% | B− |
| 1,243 | West Mifflin PA | 18,707 | $77K | 11.2% | 8.2% | 10% | B− |
| 1,244 | Belton TX | 25,964 | $59K | 16.7% | 2.6% | 16% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,860 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Prunedale, the top three, the last and three more from California.
Around Prunedale: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Prunedale’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 Prunedale: questions
What is the median household income in Prunedale?
$103,819 (±$7,281) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prunedale?
11.1%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Prunedale?
31 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prunedale work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salinas (17%, 9 mi), Monterey (7%, 19 mi), Watsonville (6%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Prunedale walkable?
Prunedale is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prunedale 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 Prunedale, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prunedale
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.