Photo: HeatherMarieKosur · CC BY-SA 4.0Work, pay and getting to work in El Paso
Home is the office for 7% of workers, where Illinois as a whole has 16%. The two grades for El Paso are B− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in five work in El Paso; the top destination outside it is Bloomington (21%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from El Paso
How El Paso earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, El Paso is better than 51% of U.S. towns, #498 of 768 in Illinois. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides El Paso’s grade. It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, El Paso could be anywhere from C to A−.
Who leaves El Paso for work, and who comes in
On a workday 1,013 residents head out to work, 225 work right here, and 1,085 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.06 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.
The places El Paso commutes to
Where El Paso clocks in
21% of workers
10% 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.
Inside El Paso’s 1,310 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in El Paso, 2013 → 2023: 1,282 → 1,310. 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 El Paso’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from El Paso: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of El Paso workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,245 commuters (the 7% 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 El Paso
About 21% 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.
Most trips from El Paso start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, El Paso is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns, #432 of 768 in Illinois. Both inputs place El Paso 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 1,345 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). 9.5% of El Paso households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of El Paso’s commuters take a bus or train.
El Paso places 2,264th of 4,969 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,700
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Deer Park IL | 3,647 | $174K | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,262 | Union Township OH | 2,609 | $69K | 5.0% | 3.3% | 9% | B− |
| 2,263 | Lake Township PA | 2,053 | $88K | 9.1% | 4.1% | 4% | B− |
| 2,264 | El Paso IL | 2,723 | $76K | 10.9% | 3.9% | 18% | B− |
| 2,265 | Jackson Township IN | 2,062 | $68K | 8.2% | 0.0% | 1% | B− |
| 2,266 | Lehman Township PA | 3,455 | $80K | 4.5% | 7.0% | 5% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,969 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 El Paso, 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 El Paso: questions
What is the median household income in El Paso?
$75,625 (±$9,243) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in El Paso?
10.9%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from El Paso?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in El Paso work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bloomington (21%, 18 mi), Normal (10%, 15 mi), Peoria (4%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is El Paso walkable?
El Paso is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around El Paso without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from El Paso, from the people who make the trip.
More of El Paso
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.