Photo: Mostly Iowa Edits · CC BY-SA 4.0Guernsey has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Employers in Guernsey report 14 jobs, and 37 of its residents work somewhere. Hardly any work in Guernsey; the top destination outside it is Montezuma (27%, 10 miles). 3% of workers have no commute at all, next to 11% for Iowa as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Guernsey on a workday afternoon
On a workday 37 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 14 people come in from elsewhere.
About 38 people are in Guernsey on a workday afternoon, 38% 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.
Where people from Guernsey work
Where Guernsey clocks in
27% 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.
Making and building: 57% of jobs based in Guernsey
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Guernsey, 2013 → 2023: 23 → 14. 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 Guernsey’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Guernsey spends getting to work: about 47 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 15 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Guernsey workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 33 commuters (the 3% 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 Guernsey, by distance
About 24% 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 Guernsey: questions
What is the median household income in Guernsey?
$70,833 (±$24,685) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Guernsey?
2.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Guernsey?
47 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Guernsey work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Montezuma (27%, 10 mi), Grinnell (8%, 20 mi), Brooklyn (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Guernsey 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 Guernsey, from the people who make the trip.
More of Guernsey
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.