Photo: Skvader · CC BY-SA 4.0Fewer people are out of work in Bement (1.3%) than in 92% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, where Illinois as a whole has 16%. Bement grades B for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Only 8% work in Bement; the top destination outside it is Monticello (12%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Bement: the gist
The figures behind Bement’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bement is better than 65% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Bement’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bement could be anywhere from B− to A−.
Goods jobs make up 48% of work in Bement
331 jobs are based in Bement.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bement, 2013 → 2023: 308 → 331. 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 Bement’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Bement: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 669 residents head out to work, 57 work right here, and 274 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Bement on a workday afternoon, 27% fewer than live here.
0.46 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
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 people from Bement work
Where Bement clocks in
12% of workers
9% 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 long Bement spends getting to work: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bement workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 964 commuters (the 6% 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 it is to work from Bement
About 23% 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.
Few in Bement walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bement is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Bement 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 1,027 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). 3.6% of Bement households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bement’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Bement is 1,388th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,386 | Borgholm Township MN | 1,909 | $83K | 3.7% | 4.5% | <1% | B |
| 1,387 | Timberline-Fernwood AZ | 1,973 | $125K | 3.4% | 4.4% | 1% | B |
| 1,388 | Bement IL | 1,462 | $76K | 7.0% | 1.3% | 8% | B |
| 1,389 | Washington Township OH | 1,685 | $80K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 6% | B |
| 1,390 | Oakland WI | 1,196 | $89K | 4.4% | 7.4% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Bement, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
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 Bement: questions
What is the median household income in Bement?
$76,250 (±$11,623) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bement?
7.0%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bement?
24 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bement work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Monticello (12%, 8 mi), Champaign (9%, 21 mi), Decatur (8%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bement walkable?
Bement is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bement 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 Bement, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bement
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.