Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.0 jobs for every working resident, most of Beacon works elsewhere
Hardly any stay in Beacon for work; outside it, Oskaloosa is the main destination (31%, 2 miles). There are 7 jobs in Beacon for 190 working residents. Home is the office for 4% of workers; Iowa has 11%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The daily flow of workers through Beacon
On a workday 190 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 7 people come in from elsewhere.
About 250 people are in Beacon on a workday afternoon, 43% fewer 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.
Commuting out of Beacon: the destinations
Where Beacon clocks in
31% of workers
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.
Beacon makes things: 43% of its jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Beacon, 2013 → 2023: 16 → 7. 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 Beacon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Beacon, about 32 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Beacon workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 197 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Iowa: 86% 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.
How far Beacon’s workers travel
About 25% 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 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 Beacon: questions
What is the median household income in Beacon?
$55,625 (±$19,881) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Beacon?
20.5%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Beacon?
32 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Beacon work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Oskaloosa (31%, 2 mi), Eddyville (4%, 8 mi), Pella (4%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Beacon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Beacon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Beacon
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.