Photo: Richc80 · CC BY 3.0Jobs, pay and the trip to work in Brooklyn
Working residents average 21 minutes each way, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. For jobs and income Brooklyn is better than 15% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (B−). About one in seven stay in Brooklyn for work; outside it, Grinnell is the main destination (12%, 14 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 Brooklyn
Brooklyn has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Brooklyn went from 425 in 2013 to 656 in 2023, +54%. The jobs ↓
Brooklyn makes and builds things
37% of the jobs based in Brooklyn are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Brooklyn residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 31%. The jobs ↓
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; with 807 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Why Brooklyn gets the Jobs & income grade it does
Household income holds Brooklyn’s grade up ($73,438, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (21.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (12.0%) is left out: Brooklyn’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Brooklyn could be anywhere from D to C+.
A place that makes things: 37% of Brooklyn’s jobs are in goods
656 jobs are based in Brooklyn.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Brooklyn, 2013 → 2023: 425 → 656. 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 Brooklyn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Brooklyn on a workday afternoon
On a workday 677 residents head out to work, 130 work right here, and 526 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Brooklyn on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.81 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.
Where people from Brooklyn work
Where Brooklyn clocks in
5% of workers
5% 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.
The daily trip from Brooklyn: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Brooklyn workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 555 commuters (the 12% 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.
The commute from Brooklyn, by distance
About 26% 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 Brooklyn, most people drive to work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 629 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). 3.7% of Brooklyn households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Brooklyn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Brooklyn next to U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000: 4,775th of 6,308 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 124 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,773 | Salamatof AK | 1,149 | $67K | 14.2% | 34.0% | — | C− |
| 4,774 | Odon IN | 1,378 | $49K | 11.4% | 2.8% | 5% | D |
| 4,775 | Brooklyn IA | 1,467 | $73K | 21.6% | 12.0% | 16% | D |
| 4,776 | Satanta KS | 1,046 | $51K | 9.6% | 3.4% | 5% | D |
| 4,777 | Sykesville PA | 1,078 | $45K | 14.1% | 3.8% | 5% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Brooklyn, the top three, the last and three more from Iowa.
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 Brooklyn: questions
What is the median household income in Brooklyn?
$73,438 (±$13,378) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Brooklyn?
21.6%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Brooklyn?
21 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Brooklyn work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Grinnell (12%, 14 mi), Montezuma (5%, 11 mi), Cedar Rapids (5%, 43 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Brooklyn walkable?
Brooklyn is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Brooklyn without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Brooklyn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Brooklyn
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.