Photo: ATLJonJon · CC BY 4.0A job hub: Gainesville has 2.7 jobs per working resident, and 44,527 people come in to work
For jobs and income Gainesville is better than 48% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (A−). Gainesville has 50,314 jobs for 18,856 working residents. About one in three stay in Gainesville for work; outside it, Oakwood is the main destination (4%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Gainesville
Gainesville draws workers from far and wide
The 50,314 jobs in Gainesville are filled from a wide area. Gainesville’s own residents hold 12% and the ten next-biggest home towns 7%; the other 81% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Gainesville is where the jobs are
Gainesville has 50,314 jobs, 2.7 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 81,000 people are in town, 64% more than the 49,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
No single place dominates Gainesville’s commute
The biggest draw, Oakwood, gets only 4% of working residents, and 51% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Gainesville 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.
Gainesville’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
Job access by car holds Gainesville’s grade up (ahead of 76% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (20.1%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Gainesville could be anywhere from C+ to B.
Where Gainesville’s workforce comes from
Where Gainesville clocks in
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.
Who works in Gainesville, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 13,069 residents head out to work and 5,787 work right here.
About 81,000 people are in Gainesville 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.
The kinds of work in Gainesville
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gainesville, 2013 → 2023: 37,534 → 50,314. 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 Gainesville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Gainesville, about 24 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gainesville workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 18,388 commuters (the 9% who work from home are left out). Across Georgia: 84% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Gainesville
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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Gainesville
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Georgia, on an EPA index of 7.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 20,168 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). 14.7% of Gainesville households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Gainesville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Gainesville next to U.S. towns of 34,000 to 66,000: 657th of 927 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Arlington OH | 35,893 | $155K | 3.3% | 2.0% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Dunwoody GA | 51,792 | $122K | 6.1% | 1.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Milton GA | 41,266 | $171K | 4.3% | 2.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 181 | Woodstock GA | 39,895 | $103K | 6.6% | 2.7% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 655 | Lewiston ID | 34,717 | $72K | 12.5% | 2.5% | 56% | B− |
| 656 | El Mirage AZ | 35,820 | $78K | 12.5% | 5.8% | 1% | B− |
| 657 | Gainesville GA | 49,221 | $67K | 20.1% | 3.3% | 31% | B− |
| 658 | Portage Township IN | 48,733 | $77K | 11.9% | 6.9% | 16% | B− |
| 659 | Portage IN | 38,634 | $76K | 11.6% | 7.4% | 15% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 927 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 26% | 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 Gainesville, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
Next door to Gainesville
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Gainesville workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gainesville | – | B− | A− | 24 min | $66,974 |
| Oakwood | 4% | B+ | C+ | 28 min | $67,917 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Oakwood. Darker towns draw more of Gainesville’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 Gainesville: questions
What is the median household income in Gainesville?
$66,974 (±$3,309) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gainesville?
20.1%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gainesville?
24 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gainesville work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Oakwood (4%, 6 mi), Atlanta (3%, 50 mi), Buford (2%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gainesville walkable?
Gainesville is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gainesville without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gainesville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gainesville
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.