Photo: formulanone · CC BY-SA 2.0At 16.5%, unemployment in Pahokee is among the highest of any U.S. town
Jobs and income earn Pahokee D−; getting around on foot earns it A. Household incomes here are lower than in 83% of U.S. towns. 2% of workers work from home (Florida 16%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Pahokee: the figures worth knowing
Pahokee’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Pahokee is Palm Springs, 37 miles away as the crow flies. 8% of working residents (179) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Pahokee makes and builds things
46% of the jobs based in Pahokee are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Pahokee residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 26%. The jobs ↓
Few Pahokee workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 16% across Florida. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Pahokee has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Pahokee went from 625 in 2013 to 965 in 2023, +54%. The jobs ↓
No single place dominates Pahokee’s commute
The biggest draw, Palm Springs, gets only 8% of working residents, and 51% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Pahokee residents fan out across the region. 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; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Why Pahokee gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Pahokee is near the bottom of U.S. towns, #637 of 638 in Florida. Household income holds Pahokee’s grade up ($53,359, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Pahokee could be anywhere from D− to C.
Miles to work from Pahokee
About 31% 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.
Making and building: 46% of jobs based in Pahokee
965 jobs are based in Pahokee.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pahokee, 2013 → 2023: 625 → 965. 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 Pahokee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 22 minutes to work from Pahokee
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pahokee workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,039 commuters (the 2% 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.
8% of working residents work in Palm Springs
Where Pahokee clocks in
8% of workers
8% 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 Pahokee
On a workday 1,891 residents head out to work, 241 work right here, and 724 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,600 people are in Pahokee on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
In Pahokee, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pahokee is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns, #83 of 638 in Florida. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 21.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.6% across Florida, on an EPA index of 8.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,077 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 60% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 4% 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). 11.9% of Pahokee households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 12% of Pahokee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Pahokee sits among U.S. towns of 4,100 to 7,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,361 | San Carlos AZ | 4,973 | $56K | 40.4% | 18.2% | 56% | D− |
| 3,362 | Chinle AZ | 4,147 | $53K | 28.4% | 12.0% | 23% | D− |
| 3,363 | Pahokee FL | 5,794 | $53K | 32.1% | 16.5% | 11% | D− |
| 3,364 | Ashburn GA | 4,211 | $30K | 26.3% | 20.3% | 17% | D− |
| 3,365 | Oscoda Township MI | 7,158 | $43K | 25.3% | 9.9% | 18% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Pahokee, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
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 Pahokee: questions
What is the median household income in Pahokee?
$53,359 (±$13,509) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pahokee?
32.1%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pahokee?
22 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pahokee work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Palm Springs (8%, 37 mi), West Palm Beach (8%, 33 mi), Belle Glade (8%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pahokee walkable?
Pahokee is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 21% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pahokee without a car?
12% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. 4% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pahokee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pahokee
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.