Photo: Mike Greene · CC BY-SA 2.0A job hub: Signal Hill has 1.9 jobs per working resident, and 12,906 people come in to work
Household incomes here are higher than in 85% of U.S. towns. Employers in Signal Hill report 13,187 jobs, and 6,813 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Signal Hill A−; 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 the numbers say about work in Signal Hill
The figures behind Signal Hill’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Signal Hill is better than 83% of U.S. towns, #143 of 847 in California. Job access by car holds Signal Hill’s grade up (ahead of 98% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (4.9%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Signal Hill could be anywhere from B to A+.
Who leaves Signal Hill for work, and who comes in
On a workday 6,532 residents head out to work and 281 work right here.
About 18,000 people are in Signal Hill on a workday afternoon, 57% 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.
Where Signal Hill’s workforce comes from
Where Signal Hill clocks in
4% 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.
69% of the jobs in Signal Hill pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Signal Hill, 2014 → 2024: 13,188 → 13,187. 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 Signal Hill’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Signal Hill: 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 Signal Hill workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,028 commuters (the 20% 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.
Half of Signal Hill commutes less than 16 miles
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.
Signal Hill is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Signal Hill is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns, #364 of 847 in California. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 7.1% across California.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,320 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). 2.8% of Signal Hill households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Signal Hill’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Signal Hill is 650th of 2,507 U.S. towns of 8,000 to 15,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Piedmont CA | 10,642 | $250K | 4.3% | 1.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | Sierra Madre CA | 10,620 | $144K | 4.6% | 2.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 126 | Alamo CA | 14,488 | $250K | 2.1% | 3.6% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 648 | Florence Township NJ | 13,385 | $106K | 5.7% | 4.8% | 8% | A− |
| 649 | Shawnee Township OH | 12,542 | $93K | 4.7% | 1.7% | 13% | A− |
| 650 | Signal Hill CA | 11,153 | $113K | 7.1% | 4.9% | 4% | A− |
| 651 | Amityville NY | 9,799 | $106K | 11.2% | 3.1% | 9% | A− |
| 652 | Choctaw OK | 12,549 | $101K | 6.3% | 3.1% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,507 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 19% | 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 Signal Hill, 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 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 Signal Hill: questions
What is the median household income in Signal Hill?
$113,298 (±$17,174) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Signal Hill?
7.1%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Signal Hill?
31 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Signal Hill work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Los Angeles (20%, 20 mi), Long Beach (14%, 2 mi), Irvine (4%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Signal Hill walkable?
Signal Hill is more walkable than 83% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 11.0 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Signal Hill without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Signal Hill, from the people who make the trip.
More of Signal Hill
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.