St. Luke's Methodist Church · Photo: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Monticello has lower unemployment (0.8%) than 96% of U.S. towns
Commuters spend 19 minutes getting to work on average; Iowa averages 20, the U.S. 26. Jobs and income earn Monticello B+; getting around on foot earns it B. About one in three stay in Monticello for work; outside it, Cedar Rapids is the main destination (12%, 31 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Monticello apart
Monticello’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Monticello is Cedar Rapids, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (216) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Monticello makes and builds things
35% of the jobs based in Monticello are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Monticello residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 27%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Monticello earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Monticello is better than 70% of U.S. towns, #39 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Monticello’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 42% 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, Monticello could be anywhere from B− to A−.
The commute from Monticello, by distance
About 20% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 35% of the jobs in Monticello
1,962 jobs are based in Monticello.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Monticello, 2014 → 2024: 2,222 → 1,962. 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 Monticello’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily flow of workers through Monticello
On a workday 1,215 residents head out to work, 549 work right here, and 1,413 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 (1.11 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 Monticello’s working residents head each day
Where Monticello clocks in
12% 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.
About 19 minutes each way, about the IA average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Monticello workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,955 commuters (the 7% 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.
Driving is how Monticello gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Monticello is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns, #89 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 2,101 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). 5.7% of Monticello households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Monticello’s commuters take a bus or train.
Monticello next to U.S. towns of 2,900 to 5,500: 1,236th of 4,023 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 150 | Solon IA | 3,345 | $113K | 3.2% | 0.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 231 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 309 | Windsor Heights IA | 5,059 | $92K | 6.2% | 1.4% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,234 | Karns TN | 4,115 | $100K | 3.8% | 9.5% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,235 | Circle D-KC Estates TX | 3,135 | $94K | 9.8% | 1.9% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,236 | Monticello IA | 4,104 | $70K | 6.0% | 0.8% | 31% | B+ |
| 1,237 | Colonial Heights TN | 3,258 | $80K | 4.7% | 4.5% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,238 | Montgomery MN | 3,539 | $79K | 5.8% | 3.0% | 14% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,023 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Monticello, 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 Monticello: questions
What is the median household income in Monticello?
$70,015 (±$11,272) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Monticello?
6.0%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Monticello?
19 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Monticello work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Cedar Rapids (12%, 31 mi), Anamosa (5%, 10 mi), Marion (3%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Monticello walkable?
Monticello is more walkable than 61% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Monticello without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Monticello, from the people who make the trip.
More of Monticello
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.