Photo: Nahtzen · CC BY-SA 4.0Manly has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
There are 180 jobs in Manly, and 493 of its residents work somewhere. The two grades for Manly are B− for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Only 6% stay in Manly for work; outside it, Mason City is the main destination (25%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Why Manly gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Manly is better than 50% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Manly’s grade up (6.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 34% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.5%) is left out: Manly’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, Manly could be anywhere from C to B+.
The daily flow of workers through Manly
On a workday 464 residents head out to work, 29 work right here, and 151 people come in from elsewhere.
About 930 people are in Manly on a workday afternoon, 25% 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 Manly work
Where Manly clocks in
25% of workers
9% 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.
Most jobs in Manly are in services
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Manly, 2013 → 2023: 277 → 180. 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 Manly’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Manly, about 20 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Manly workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 735 commuters (the 5% 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 Manly, by distance
About 25% 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.
The commute in Manly is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Manly is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Manly near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 772 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). 3.9% of Manly households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Manly’s commuters take a bus or train.
Manly places 1,680th of 4,866 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 94 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 110 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 213 | Slater IA | 1,617 | $98K | 3.8% | 1.1% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,678 | Franklin Township OH | 1,174 | $57K | 5.5% | 2.0% | 1% | B− |
| 1,679 | Clifton IL | 1,298 | $92K | 11.9% | 1.7% | 6% | B− |
| 1,680 | Manly IA | 1,239 | $73K | 6.8% | 3.5% | 6% | B− |
| 1,681 | Smith Township OH | 1,400 | $89K | 6.8% | 10.5% | 1% | B− |
| 1,682 | Princeton WI | 1,552 | $84K | 7.1% | 1.9% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | 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 Manly, 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 Manly: questions
What is the median household income in Manly?
$72,813 (±$17,241) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Manly?
6.8%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Manly?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Manly work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mason City (25%, 10 mi), Northwood (9%, 11 mi), Forest City (5%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Manly walkable?
Manly is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Manly 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 Manly, from the people who make the trip.
More of Manly
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.