Photo: Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0Unemployment in Williams (17.2%) is among the highest in the country
Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers, against 17% across California. For jobs and income Williams is better than 26% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (C+). About one in five work in Williams; the top destination outside it is Colusa (7%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Williams, in brief
Few Williams workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 17% across California. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Williams makes and builds things
37% of the jobs based in Williams are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Williams residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 31%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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.
What’s behind Williams’ Jobs & income grade
Household income holds Williams’ grade up ($90,761, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Williams could be anywhere from D to B−.
About 26 minutes each way for Williams’ commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Williams workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,285 commuters (the 2% 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.
37% of the jobs in Williams make or build things
1,269 jobs are based in Williams.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Williams, 2013 → 2023: 1,082 → 1,269. 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 Williams’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Williams commutes less than 28 miles
About 34% 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.
How many people are in Williams by day
On a workday 1,602 residents head out to work, 347 work right here, and 922 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,800 people are in Williams on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.65 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.
Commuting out of Williams: the destinations
Where Williams 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.
Getting around Williams: mostly by car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.4% 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 2,331 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.2% of Williams households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Williams’ commuters take a bus or train.
Williams places 2,728th of 3,502 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 3,900 to 7,500
| # | 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 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 66 | Las Flores CA | 5,513 | $212K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Broadmoor CA | 4,586 | $167K | 2.5% | 2.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 121 | La Habra Heights CA | 5,327 | $180K | 4.9% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,726 | Bloomfield Township IN | 5,883 | $62K | 13.6% | 6.2% | 19% | C |
| 2,727 | Chickasaw AL | 6,166 | $47K | 28.0% | 4.6% | 3% | C |
| 2,728 | Williams CA | 5,529 | $91K | 9.3% | 17.2% | 18% | C |
| 2,729 | Gladewater TX | 6,306 | $59K | 22.5% | 5.0% | 8% | C |
| 2,730 | Deerpark NY | 7,433 | $73K | 10.2% | 8.4% | 13% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,502 | 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 Williams, 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 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 Williams: questions
What is the median household income in Williams?
$90,761 (±$22,136) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Williams?
9.3%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Williams?
26 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Williams work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Colusa (7%, 8 mi), Woodland (5%, 39 mi), Sacramento (4%, 54 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Williams walkable?
Williams is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Williams without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Williams, from the people who make the trip.
More of Williams
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.