Photo: Ruhe1986 at English Wikipedia · Public domainWith 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Carrier Mills works elsewhere
Measured by household income, Carrier Mills is behind 87% of U.S. towns. Carrier Mills has 228 jobs, against 647 working residents. Jobs and income earn Carrier Mills D; getting around on foot earns it C.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Carrier Mills
Carrier Mills and Harrisburg trade workers both ways
Harrisburg is the top workplace for Carrier Mills residents (18%) and also where the most people who work in Carrier Mills come from (16% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Few Carrier Mills workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 16% across Illinois. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 647 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Carrier Mills
On income, poverty and job access, Carrier Mills is better than 6% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Carrier Mills’ grade.
Unemployment (6.0%) is left out: Carrier Mills’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, Carrier Mills could be anywhere from D− to C−.
18% of working residents work in Harrisburg
Where Carrier Mills clocks in
18% of workers
11% of workers
4% 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.
A commute of about 31 minutes in Carrier Mills
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Carrier Mills workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 635 commuters (the 2% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Carrier Mills
On a workday 624 residents head out to work, 23 work right here, and 205 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Carrier Mills on a workday afternoon, 26% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Carrier Mills, 2014 → 2024: 277 → 228. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Carrier Mills’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Carrier Mills
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Carrier Mills is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Carrier Mills is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 10.8% across Illinois.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 649 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). 8.5% of Carrier Mills households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Carrier Mills’ commuters take a bus or train.
Carrier Mills next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200: 5,525th of 6,161 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,523 | Louisville Township IL | 1,640 | $55K | 28.1% | 8.9% | 15% | D |
| 5,524 | Morgan Township OH | 1,357 | $62K | 27.2% | 4.4% | <1% | D |
| 5,525 | Carrier Mills IL | 1,595 | $51K | 25.4% | 6.0% | 4% | D |
| 5,526 | Oak Grove LA | 1,350 | $51K | 16.8% | 2.2% | 27% | D |
| 5,527 | Leadwood MO | 1,158 | $45K | 36.0% | 2.7% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 7% | 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 Carrier Mills, 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 2024, 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 Carrier Mills: questions
What is the median household income in Carrier Mills?
$50,729 (±$13,743) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Carrier Mills?
25.4%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Carrier Mills?
31 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Carrier Mills work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Harrisburg (18%, 6 mi), Marion (11%, 17 mi), Eldorado (4%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Carrier Mills walkable?
Carrier Mills is more walkable than 30% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Carrier Mills without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Carrier Mills, from the people who make the trip.
More of Carrier Mills
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.