Photo: Dan Breyfogle · CC BY-SA 3.0At 1.1%, unemployment in Jefferson is lower than in 94% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Jefferson is behind 76% of U.S. towns. The two grades for Jefferson are B− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. About one in three stay in Jefferson for work; outside it, Carroll is the main destination (3%, 25 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jefferson’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Jefferson is better than 50% of U.S. towns, #72 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Jefferson’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Jefferson could be anywhere from C to B.
Who leaves Jefferson for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,043 residents head out to work, 616 work right here, and 1,286 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 (1.15 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 Jefferson goes to work
Where Jefferson clocks in
3% of workers
2% of workers
2% 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 1,902 jobs based in Jefferson
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Jefferson, 2013 → 2023: 1,863 → 1,902. 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 Jefferson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 22 minutes to work from Jefferson
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Jefferson workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,622 commuters (the 6% 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 distance from Jefferson to work
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.
In Jefferson, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Jefferson is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns, #119 of 140 in Iowa. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.4% across Iowa.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,730 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). 4.1% of Jefferson households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Jefferson’s commuters take a bus or train.
Jefferson places 2,127th of 4,112 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 2,900 to 5,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 152 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 235 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 313 | Windsor Heights IA | 5,059 | $92K | 6.2% | 1.4% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,125 | Peters Township PA | 4,473 | $77K | 12.4% | 1.5% | 9% | B− |
| 2,126 | Codorus Township PA | 4,014 | $102K | 9.5% | 7.2% | 5% | B− |
| 2,127 | Jefferson IA | 4,150 | $59K | 7.3% | 1.1% | 37% | B− |
| 2,128 | Westover WV | 4,086 | $61K | 12.6% | 3.0% | 7% | B− |
| 2,129 | Saranac NY | 3,791 | $83K | 12.2% | 0.7% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,112 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Jefferson, 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 Jefferson: questions
What is the median household income in Jefferson?
$58,895 (±$4,831) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Jefferson?
7.3%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Jefferson?
22 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Jefferson work?
37% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Carroll (3%, 25 mi), West Des Moines (2%, 45 mi), Scranton (2%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Jefferson walkable?
Jefferson is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Jefferson without a car?
<1% 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 Jefferson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Jefferson
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.