Photo: formulanone · CC BY-SA 2.0A job hub: Okeechobee has 2.8 jobs per working resident, and 5,201 people come in to work
Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers, against 16% across Florida. Employers in Okeechobee report 5,729 jobs, and 2,021 of its residents work somewhere. Okeechobee grades C for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Okeechobee: the figures worth knowing
No single place dominates Okeechobee’s commute
The biggest draw, Port St. Lucie, gets only 3% of working residents, and 60% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Okeechobee residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Okeechobee is where the jobs are
Okeechobee has 5,729 jobs, 2.8 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 9,500 people are in town, 64% more than the 5,800 who live here. Day and night ↓
Okeechobee draws workers from far and wide
The 5,729 jobs in Okeechobee are filled from a wide area. Okeechobee’s own residents hold 9% and the ten next-biggest home towns 17%; the other 74% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Few Okeechobee workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 16% across Florida. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
38% 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.
Income, poverty and work: Okeechobee’s grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Okeechobee is better than 28% of U.S. towns, #516 of 638 in Florida. Unemployment holds Okeechobee’s grade up (3.1%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($57,044, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Okeechobee could be anywhere from D to B−.
The towns that send workers to Okeechobee
Where Okeechobee clocks in
3% of workers
3% of workers
2% 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.
How a workday changes Okeechobee
On a workday 1,493 residents head out to work and 528 work right here.
About 9,500 people are in Okeechobee on a workday afternoon, 64% 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 2023, primary jobs.
A commute of about 26 minutes in Okeechobee
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Okeechobee workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,380 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Florida: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Miles to work from Okeechobee
About 38% 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.
What Okeechobee’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Okeechobee, 2013 → 2023: 4,684 → 5,729. 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 Okeechobee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Okeechobee
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Okeechobee is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #115 of 638 in Florida. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 12.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.6% across Florida, on an EPA index of 8.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,448 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). 9.9% of Okeechobee households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 7% of Okeechobee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Okeechobee is 2,548th of 3,375 U.S. towns of 4,100 to 7,800 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 44 | Southwest Ranches FL | 7,773 | $161K | 3.8% | 1.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Bay Hill FL | 4,512 | $128K | 0.7% | 1.5% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 173 | Neptune Beach FL | 7,020 | $119K | 3.1% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,546 | Globe AZ | 7,191 | $69K | 16.4% | 3.0% | 30% | C |
| 2,547 | Ogallala NE | 4,698 | $59K | 12.4% | 3.0% | 53% | C |
| 2,548 | Okeechobee FL | 5,811 | $57K | 15.8% | 3.1% | 26% | C |
| 2,549 | Port Clinton OH | 5,875 | $61K | 17.5% | 4.4% | 23% | C |
| 2,550 | Mocksville NC | 6,282 | $55K | 19.2% | 4.2% | 18% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,375 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 4% | 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 Okeechobee, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
Okeechobee and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Cypress Quarters (1%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Okeechobee workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Okeechobee | – | C | A | 26 min | $57,044 |
| Cypress Quarters | 1% | D− | C− | 50 min | $38,352 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Okeechobee’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 Okeechobee: questions
What is the median household income in Okeechobee?
$57,044 (±$7,480) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Okeechobee?
15.8%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Okeechobee?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Okeechobee work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Port St. Lucie (3%, 27 mi), Fort Pierce (3%, 32 mi), Stuart (2%, 36 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Okeechobee walkable?
Okeechobee is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 12% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Okeechobee without a car?
7% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Okeechobee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Okeechobee
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.