Laurens Carnegie Free Library · Photo: CelticClicker · CC BY-SA 3.0There are 1.9 jobs in Laurens for every working resident, and 737 people commute in
For jobs and income Laurens is better than 7% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (B). There are 947 jobs in Laurens for 498 working residents. Household incomes here are lower than in 89% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Laurens and work: the main findings
Laurens is where the jobs are
Laurens has 947 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
45% of the jobs in Laurens are in trade, transport and utilities, against 29% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
The jobs in Laurens pay better than its residents’ jobs
74% of the jobs based in Laurens pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 58% of the jobs Laurens residents hold. 78% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Laurens. 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 498 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Laurens’ Jobs & income grade comes from
The poverty rate holds Laurens’ grade up (15.0%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($48,988, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (6.3%) is left out: Laurens’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, Laurens could be anywhere from D− to C.
Laurens by day and by night
On a workday 288 residents head out to work and 210 work right here.
About 1,700 people are in Laurens on a workday afternoon, 37% more than live here.
1.9 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Factories, building and farms: 39% of the jobs in Laurens
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Laurens, 2013 → 2023: 1,035 → 947. 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 Laurens’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Laurens’s workers come from
Where Laurens clocks in
8% 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.
Time on the road from Laurens: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Laurens workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 586 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 Laurens, by distance
About 23% 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.
Laurens is a driving town
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 6.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 604 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). 8.9% of Laurens households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Laurens’ commuters take a bus or train.
Laurens places 3,718th of 4,312 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 185 | Gilbert IA | 1,389 | $123K | 3.4% | 4.1% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,716 | Republic Township MI | 1,008 | $50K | 12.5% | 9.5% | 5% | D |
| 3,717 | Perry Township OH | 1,505 | $60K | 18.6% | 0.0% | 2% | D |
| 3,718 | Laurens IA | 1,217 | $49K | 15.0% | 6.3% | 42% | D |
| 3,719 | Kingston OH | 1,236 | $40K | 26.3% | 2.5% | 1% | D |
| 3,720 | Smethport PA | 1,359 | $60K | 19.2% | 6.8% | 21% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Laurens, 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 Laurens: questions
What is the median household income in Laurens?
$48,988 (±$10,053) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Laurens?
15.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Laurens?
22 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Laurens work?
42% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pocahontas (8%, 12 mi), Fort Dodge (2%, 41 mi), Sioux City (2%, 82 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Laurens walkable?
Laurens is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Laurens without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Laurens, from the people who make the trip.
More of Laurens
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.