How Pahala works: jobs, income and commuting
Working residents average 46 minutes each way (Hawaii 26, U.S. 26). For jobs and income Pahala is better than 20% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (C+). Hardly any work in Pahala itself; outside it, Urban Honolulu draws the most (21%, 212 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The four measures behind Pahala’s grade
Household income holds Pahala’s grade up ($71,518, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (12.7%) is left out: Pahala’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Pahala could be anywhere from D− to B.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 127 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 165 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 per resident).
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 towns that employ Pahala’s residents
Where Pahala 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Pahala
165 jobs are based in Pahala.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pahala, 2013 → 2023: 101 → 165. 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 Pahala’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Pahala: about 46 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 14.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pahala workers work from home, vs 10% across Hawaii. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 525 commuters (the 12% who work from home are left out). Across Hawaii: 72% drive alone, 4% 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 Pahala commutes less than 44 miles
About 43% 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.
In Pahala, most people drive to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.0% across Hawaii, on an EPA index of 4.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 596 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). 7.7% of Pahala households have no vehicle (Hawaii 8.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Pahala’s commuters take a bus or train.
Pahala places 4,293rd of 6,085 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | Maunawili HI | 2,024 | $177K | 1.6% | 1.6% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 398 | Wheeler AFB HI | 2,097 | $92K | 1.3% | 4.9% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 412 | Ko Olina HI | 1,670 | $133K | 6.8% | 0.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,291 | Hillsboro WI | 1,401 | $60K | 12.0% | 7.4% | 20% | C− |
| 4,292 | Broad Top Township PA | 1,454 | $62K | 9.2% | 6.9% | 1% | C− |
| 4,293 | Pahala HI | 1,768 | $72K | 11.3% | 12.7% | 0% | C− |
| 4,294 | Orangeville UT | 1,271 | $90K | 20.2% | 2.1% | 5% | C− |
| 4,295 | Browning Township IL | 2,353 | $53K | 14.1% | 2.5% | 5% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Pahala, the top three, the last and three more from Hawaii.
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 Pahala: questions
What is the median household income in Pahala?
$71,518 (±$11,865) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $100,389 across Hawaii and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pahala?
11.3%, against 10.0% across Hawaii and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pahala?
46 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Hawaii and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pahala work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Urban Honolulu (21%, 212 mi), Hilo (15%, 42 mi), Captain Cook (4%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pahala walkable?
Pahala is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.2 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pahala without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pahala, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pahala
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.