Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Earning a living in Manning
At 20 minutes each way, commutes from Manning run about the Iowa average. The two grades for Manning are C+ for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. About one in four work in Manning; the top destination outside it is Carroll (10%, 15 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Manning at work: what stands out
Inside Manning’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Manning is better than 39% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Manning’s grade up (7.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 16% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.7%) is left out: Manning’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, Manning could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Manning
About 33% 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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 584 residents head out to work, 192 work right here, and 503 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 (0.90 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 people from Manning work
Where Manning clocks in
10% of workers
5% of workers
3% 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.
What Manning’s employers do
695 jobs are based in Manning.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Manning, 2013 → 2023: 804 → 695. 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 Manning’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 20 minutes to work from Manning
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Manning workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 792 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.
Manning is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Manning is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% 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 843 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). 4.7% of Manning households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Manning’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Manning ranks 2,738th of 5,877 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 115 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 136 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 274 | Slater IA | 1,617 | $98K | 3.8% | 1.1% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,736 | West Franklin Township PA | 1,655 | $68K | 8.7% | 2.4% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,737 | Quincy CA | 1,317 | $89K | 9.2% | 14.1% | 25% | C+ |
| 2,738 | Manning IA | 1,375 | $73K | 7.4% | 0.7% | 25% | C+ |
| 2,739 | Buffalo OK | 1,002 | $72K | 5.0% | 1.5% | 19% | C+ |
| 2,740 | Elizabeth PA | 1,343 | $51K | 13.0% | 3.9% | 6% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Manning, 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 Manning: questions
What is the median household income in Manning?
$72,831 (±$11,506) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Manning?
7.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Manning?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Manning work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Carroll (10%, 15 mi), Templeton (5%, 6 mi), Audubon (3%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Manning walkable?
Manning is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Manning without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Manning, from the people who make the trip.
More of Manning
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.