Photo: Ashton B Crew · CC BY 3.0Sheffield has 1.8 jobs for every working resident: 757 people commute in to work
The two grades for Sheffield are C− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. 824 jobs are based in Sheffield; 452 of its residents have a job. Household incomes here are lower than in 82% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Sheffield, in a few figures
Sheffield makes and builds things
73% of the jobs based in Sheffield are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Sheffield residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 28%. The jobs ↓
Sheffield is where the jobs are
Sheffield has 824 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Sheffield workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 27 minutes each way, against 20 across Iowa. Over a year that’s about 207 hours of commuting, 54 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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 452 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Sheffield earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Sheffield is better than 16% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Sheffield’s grade up (13.4%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($54,458, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (3.3%) is left out: Sheffield’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, Sheffield could be anywhere from D to C+.
Factories, building and farms: 73% of the jobs in Sheffield
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sheffield, 2013 → 2023: 744 → 824. 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 Sheffield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Sheffield
On a workday 385 residents head out to work and 67 work right here.
About 1,500 people are in Sheffield on a workday afternoon, 34% 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.
Commuting from Sheffield: about 27 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sheffield workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 477 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.
Commuting in to Sheffield: where workers come from
Where Sheffield clocks in
14% of workers
11% of workers
6% 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.
How far Sheffield goes to work
About 27% 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.
Most trips from Sheffield start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sheffield is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 4.4% across Iowa, on an EPA index of 6.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 512 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). 3.0% of Sheffield households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sheffield’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Sheffield comes 2,751st 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 70 | University Heights IA | 1,177 | $111K | 14.5% | 1.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Walford IA | 1,359 | $129K | 1.1% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 155 | Gilbert IA | 1,389 | $123K | 3.4% | 4.1% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,749 | Coventry NY | 1,484 | $63K | 15.0% | 3.6% | 1% | C− |
| 2,750 | Iron River WI | 1,274 | $58K | 9.6% | 1.3% | 16% | C− |
| 2,751 | Sheffield IA | 1,103 | $54K | 13.4% | 3.3% | 15% | C− |
| 2,752 | Kemp TX | 1,453 | $56K | 25.2% | 2.7% | 1% | C− |
| 2,753 | Locust Fork AL | 1,234 | $50K | 18.7% | 4.5% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Sheffield, 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 Sheffield: questions
What is the median household income in Sheffield?
$54,458 (±$15,529) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sheffield?
13.4%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sheffield?
27 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sheffield work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hampton (14%, 10 mi), Mason City (11%, 18 mi), Iowa Falls (6%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sheffield walkable?
Sheffield is more walkable than 72% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sheffield without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sheffield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sheffield
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.