Photo: Uoila1 · Public domainA job hub: Ashton has 1.9 jobs per working resident, and 880 people come in to work
About one in ten work in Ashton itself; outside it, Rochelle draws the most (14%, 9 miles). 930 jobs are based in Ashton, against 479 working residents. 5% of workers work from home, where Illinois as a whole has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Ashton
Ashton makes and builds things
71% of the jobs based in Ashton are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Ashton residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 32%. The jobs ↓
Ashton is where the jobs are
Ashton has 930 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 1,400 people are in town, 49% more than the 930 who live here. Day and night ↓
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 479 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Factories, building and farms: 71% of the jobs in Ashton
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ashton, 2013 → 2023: 896 → 930. 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 Ashton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Ashton: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 429 residents head out to work and 50 work right here.
About 1,400 people are in Ashton on a workday afternoon, 49% 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.
Who travels to work in Ashton, and from where
Where Ashton clocks in
6% 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.
About 27 minutes each way for Ashton’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ashton workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 369 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far Ashton’s workers travel
About 29% 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.
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 Ashton: questions
What is the median household income in Ashton?
$62,778 (±$8,405) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ashton?
14.5%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ashton?
27 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ashton work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rochelle (14%, 9 mi), Rockford (6%, 28 mi), Dixon (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Ashton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ashton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ashton
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.