Photo: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0Harper has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.1 for each
Hardly any work in Harper itself; outside it, Keota draws the most (11%, 5 miles). Harper has 6 jobs for 45 working residents. Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers; Iowa has 11%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Harper quiets down on a workday
On a workday 45 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 6 people come in from elsewhere.
About 78 people are in Harper on a workday afternoon, 33% 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 Harper goes to work
Where Harper clocks in
11% of workers
11% of workers
7% 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.
83% of the jobs in Harper pay over $3,333 a month
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Harper, 2013 → 2023: 14 → 6. 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 Harper’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 24 minutes in Harper
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Harper workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 90 commuters (the 0% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Harper
About 27% 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 Harper: questions
What is the median household income in Harper?
$100,417 (±$21,286) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Harper?
7.7%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Harper?
24 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Harper work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Keota (11%, 5 mi), Sigourney (11%, 8 mi), Washington (7%, 19 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Harper without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Harper, from the people who make the trip.
More of Harper
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.