Photo: David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA · CC BY 2.0Making a living in Erie
4% of workers work from home, where Illinois as a whole has 16%. Jobs and income earn Erie B+; getting around on foot earns it C−. About one in seven work in Erie itself; outside it, Davenport draws the most (7%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Erie stands out on work
Commutes from Erie are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Erie workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 16% across Illinois. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Erie has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Erie went from 312 in 2014 to 420 in 2024, +35%. The jobs ↓
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 681 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Erie earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Erie is better than 71% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Erie’s grade up (3.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 39% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (4.1%) is left out: Erie’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, Erie could be anywhere from B− to A−.
Getting to work from Erie takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Erie workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 690 commuters (the 4% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Erie
420 jobs are based in Erie.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Erie, 2014 → 2024: 312 → 420. 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 Erie’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Erie
On a workday 594 residents head out to work, 87 work right here, and 333 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Erie on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.62 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 2024, primary jobs.
Commuting out of Erie: the destinations
Where Erie clocks in
7% of workers
5% 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.
How far Erie goes to work
About 25% 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.
Driving is how Erie gets around
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 718 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). 1.9% of Erie households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Erie’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 2,000, Erie ranks 1,069th of 6,308 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 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% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,067 | Saticoy CA | 1,518 | $86K | 8.8% | 12.4% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,068 | Lake Riverside CA | 1,262 | $129K | 1.3% | 9.6% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,069 | Erie IL | 1,484 | $83K | 3.0% | 4.1% | 13% | B+ |
| 1,070 | Yamhill OR | 1,220 | $114K | 8.4% | 1.4% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,071 | Throop NY | 1,797 | $90K | 5.4% | 1.9% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,308 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Erie, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Erie and its neighbors
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Erie workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erie | – | B+ | C− | 19 min | $82,760 |
| Erie Township | under 3% | B+ | D | 20 min | $82,426 |
| Fenton Township | under 3% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Fenton Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Erie’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Erie: questions
What is the median household income in Erie?
$82,760 (±$24,049) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Erie?
3.0%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Erie?
19 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Erie work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Davenport (7%, 28 mi), Clinton (5%, 15 mi), Morrison (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Erie walkable?
Erie is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Erie 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 Erie, from the people who make the trip.
More of Erie
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.