Photo: NatFee · CC BY-SA 4.0Most of Forest City commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
Home is the office for 6% of workers, where Illinois as a whole has 16%. There are 13 jobs in Forest City, against 64 working residents. Hardly any stay in Forest City for work; outside it, Manito is the main destination (20%, 4 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Forest City on a workday afternoon
On a workday 64 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 13 people come in from elsewhere.
About 160 people are in Forest City on a workday afternoon, 24% 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 2023, primary jobs.
Where Forest City’s working residents head each day
Where Forest City clocks in
20% of workers
11% of workers
6% 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.
What Forest City’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forest City, 2013 → 2023: 21 → 13. 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 Forest City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 30 minutes from Forest City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forest City workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 83 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Forest City
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
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 Forest City: questions
What is the median household income in Forest City?
$87,813 (±$24,284) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forest City?
28.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forest City?
30 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forest City work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Manito (20%, 4 mi), Springfield (11%, 41 mi), Chicago (6%, 151 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Forest City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Forest City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forest City
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.