Photo: Treymeister · Public domainMaquoketa has higher unemployment (8.6%) than 91% of U.S. towns
About one in three work in Maquoketa itself; outside it, Dubuque draws the most (12%, 30 miles). Jobs and income earn Maquoketa C−; getting around on foot earns it B. Measured by household income, Maquoketa is behind 74% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Maquoketa stands out on work
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Maquoketa
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Maquoketa is better than 17% of U.S. towns, #129 of 140 in Iowa. Job access by car holds Maquoketa’s grade up (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Maquoketa could be anywhere from D to B−.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Maquoketa
About 18% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In and out of Maquoketa on a workday
On a workday 1,889 residents head out to work, 1,012 work right here, and 1,996 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 (1.04 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where people from Maquoketa work
Where Maquoketa clocks in
12% of workers
7% of workers
4% 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 Maquoketa’s employers do
3,008 jobs are based in Maquoketa.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Maquoketa, 2014 → 2024: 2,841 → 3,008. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Maquoketa’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Maquoketa: about 23 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Maquoketa workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,372 commuters (the 10% 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.
In Maquoketa, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Maquoketa is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #83 of 140 in Iowa. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.0% 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 2,638 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). 9.9% of Maquoketa households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Maquoketa’s commuters take a bus or train.
Maquoketa is 2,946th of 3,394 U.S. towns of 4,200 to 8,100 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Eldridge IA | 6,954 | $106K | 1.3% | 1.0% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 204 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 234 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,944 | Richland Center WI | 5,020 | $52K | 16.0% | 4.6% | 37% | C− |
| 2,945 | American Falls ID | 4,785 | $58K | 10.8% | 7.3% | 25% | C− |
| 2,946 | Maquoketa IA | 6,027 | $60K | 14.2% | 8.6% | 35% | C− |
| 2,947 | Rockingham VT | 4,697 | $71K | 16.7% | 7.8% | 22% | C− |
| 2,948 | Elberton GA | 4,890 | $50K | 25.7% | 3.9% | 22% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,394 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 3% | 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 Maquoketa, 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 2024, 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 Maquoketa: questions
What is the median household income in Maquoketa?
$60,240 (±$6,558) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Maquoketa?
14.2%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Maquoketa?
23 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Maquoketa work?
35% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dubuque (12%, 30 mi), Davenport (7%, 35 mi), Cedar Rapids (4%, 52 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Maquoketa walkable?
Maquoketa is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Maquoketa without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Maquoketa, from the people who make the trip.
More of Maquoketa
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.