Carnegie Library · Photo: John Licinius Everett Peck, Otto Hillock Montzheimer, William J. Miller · Public domainAt 0.6%, unemployment in Sheldon is lower than in 97% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 4% of workers, against 11% across Iowa. The two grades for Sheldon are B− for jobs and income and B for walkability. About two in five work in Sheldon; the top destination outside it is Sioux Center (6%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Sheldon at work: what stands out
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Sheldon
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Sheldon is better than 45% of U.S. towns, #80 of 140 in Iowa. Unemployment holds Sheldon’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (15.3%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sheldon could be anywhere from C to B.
Getting to work from Sheldon takes about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sheldon workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,664 commuters (the 4% 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.
Sheldon on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,759 residents head out to work, 1,155 work right here, and 2,404 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,200 people are in Sheldon on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.22 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 Sheldon’s working residents head each day
Where Sheldon clocks in
6% 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 work there is in Sheldon: 3,559 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sheldon, 2013 → 2023: 3,423 → 3,559. 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 Sheldon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Sheldon 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.
In Sheldon, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sheldon is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns, #82 of 140 in Iowa. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.3% 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 2,787 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). 4.8% of Sheldon households have no vehicle (Iowa 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Sheldon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Sheldon places 2,076th of 3,502 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 3,900 to 7,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 142 | Eldridge IA | 6,954 | $106K | 1.3% | 1.0% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 203 | Asbury IA | 6,035 | $125K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 238 | Huxley IA | 4,715 | $112K | 4.5% | 1.3% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,074 | Knox Township IL | 4,785 | $82K | 11.3% | 4.8% | 9% | B− |
| 2,075 | Urbana Township IL | 7,450 | $63K | 16.7% | 3.3% | 2% | B− |
| 2,076 | Sheldon IA | 5,575 | $62K | 15.3% | 0.6% | 40% | B− |
| 2,077 | Cedarville OH | 4,667 | $64K | 23.5% | 10.4% | 25% | B− |
| 2,078 | Lewisburg PA | 5,226 | $55K | 20.8% | 0.7% | 23% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,502 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Sheldon, 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 Sheldon: questions
What is the median household income in Sheldon?
$62,159 (±$13,185) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,059 across Iowa and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sheldon?
15.3%, against 11.1% across Iowa and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sheldon?
17 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Iowa and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sheldon work?
40% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sioux Center (6%, 18 mi), Orange City (5%, 16 mi), Sioux City (3%, 55 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sheldon walkable?
Sheldon is more walkable than 64% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sheldon without a car?
1% 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 Sheldon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sheldon
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.