Photo: Kepper66 · CC BY-SA 3.0At 7.5%, unemployment in Cambridge is higher than in 86% of U.S. towns
About one in seven stay in Cambridge for work; outside it, Geneseo is the main destination (10%, 11 miles). The two grades for Cambridge are C− for jobs and income and B for walkability. 5% of workers work from home, against 16% across Illinois.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Cambridge and work: the main findings
Why Cambridge gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Cambridge is better than 23% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Cambridge’s grade up (ahead of 43% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Cambridge could be anywhere from D to B.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Cambridge
676 jobs are based in Cambridge.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cambridge, 2013 → 2023: 930 → 676. 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 Cambridge’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Cambridge for work, and who comes in
On a workday 790 residents head out to work, 110 work right here, and 566 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Cambridge on a workday afternoon, 11% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.75 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 people from Cambridge work
Where Cambridge clocks in
10% of workers
9% of workers
7% 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 28 minutes each way for Cambridge’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cambridge workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 996 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.
Miles to work from Cambridge
About 20% 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 Cambridge, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cambridge is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 5.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,047 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). 1.7% of Cambridge households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cambridge’s commuters take a bus or train.
Cambridge is 3,825th of 5,509 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Port Barrington IL | 1,584 | $150K | 2.7% | 2.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,823 | Lake Brownwood TX | 1,544 | $70K | 12.2% | 7.3% | 3% | C− |
| 3,824 | Carlisle AR | 1,982 | $42K | 11.6% | 4.6% | 26% | C− |
| 3,825 | Cambridge IL | 2,020 | $65K | 13.1% | 7.5% | 12% | C− |
| 3,826 | Northwood IA | 2,056 | $63K | 8.8% | 7.9% | 32% | C− |
| 3,827 | Kenly NC | 1,722 | $57K | 14.4% | 5.3% | 7% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Cambridge, 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 Cambridge: questions
What is the median household income in Cambridge?
$64,979 (±$7,774) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cambridge?
13.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cambridge?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cambridge work?
12% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Geneseo (10%, 11 mi), Davenport (9%, 28 mi), Moline (7%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cambridge walkable?
Cambridge is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cambridge without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cambridge, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cambridge
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.