Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0Oakland draws 1,095 commuters a day, with 1.9 jobs for every working resident
About one in five work in Oakland itself; outside it, Council Bluffs draws the most (16%, 24 miles). Employers in Oakland report 1,241 jobs, against 668 working residents. The two grades for Oakland are C+ for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Oakland and work: the main findings
Many of the people who work in Oakland live in another state
Omaha, NE (22%) and Bellevue, NE (2%) are among the top places Oakland’s workers come from. Counting only the top ten home towns, 24% of the jobs here are held by people from out of state. The commute map ↓
Oakland is where the jobs are
Oakland has 1,241 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Oakland makes and builds things
61% of the jobs based in Oakland are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Oakland residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 25%. 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 668 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Oakland’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Oakland is better than 40% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Oakland’s grade up ($81,354, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.3%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Oakland’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, Oakland could be anywhere from C− to B.
The towns that send workers to Oakland
Where Oakland clocks in
16% of workers
13% 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.
In and out of Oakland on a workday
On a workday 522 residents head out to work and 146 work right here.
About 2,100 people are in Oakland on a workday afternoon, 38% more 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.
61% of the jobs in Oakland make or build things
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oakland, 2013 → 2023: 1,137 → 1,241. 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 Oakland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 23 minutes in Oakland
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oakland workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 616 commuters (the 9% 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.
Where in the region Oakland works
About 17% 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.
Oakland is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oakland is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Oakland 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 678 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.8% of Oakland households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Oakland’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Oakland is 2,888th of 6,308 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 124 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Van Meter IA | 1,978 | $135K | 2.6% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 146 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,886 | Todd Township PA | 1,617 | $74K | 7.9% | 3.5% | 9% | C+ |
| 2,887 | Rome City IN | 1,317 | $71K | 11.8% | 4.9% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,888 | Oakland IA | 1,489 | $81K | 14.3% | 0.0% | 22% | C+ |
| 2,889 | Towanda KS | 1,426 | $64K | 13.5% | 2.4% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,890 | Houston PA | 1,126 | $65K | 20.0% | 3.0% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | 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 Oakland, 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 Oakland: questions
What is the median household income in Oakland?
$81,354 (±$14,049) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oakland?
14.3%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oakland?
23 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oakland work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Council Bluffs (16%, 24 mi), Omaha (13%, 34 mi), Atlantic (5%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oakland walkable?
Oakland is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oakland without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Oakland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Oakland
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.