South Side School · Photo: John W. Ross · Public domainGeneseo has lower unemployment (3.5%) than 61% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Geneseo B+; getting around on foot earns it C+. For 8% of workers, the job is at home, where Illinois as a whole has 16%. About one in three stay in Geneseo for work; outside it, Moline is the main destination (7%, 18 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Geneseo
Why Geneseo gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Geneseo is better than 68% of U.S. towns, #350 of 768 in Illinois. The poverty rate holds Geneseo’s grade up (2.6%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($70,147, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Geneseo could be anywhere from B− to A.
Getting to work from Geneseo takes about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Geneseo workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,864 commuters (the 8% 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 workday shuffle in and out of Geneseo
On a workday 2,011 residents head out to work, 972 work right here, and 2,968 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,500 people are in Geneseo on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.32 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 towns that employ Geneseo’s residents
Where Geneseo clocks in
7% of workers
6% 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.
The 3,940 jobs based in Geneseo
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Geneseo, 2013 → 2023: 3,127 → 3,940. 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 Geneseo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Geneseo
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.
Geneseo is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Geneseo is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns, #612 of 768 in Illinois. 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 3,121 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). 8.6% of Geneseo households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Geneseo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Geneseo is 1,184th of 3,218 U.S. towns of 4,600 to 8,800 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | South Barrington IL | 5,071 | $222K | 1.0% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| 11 | Long Grove IL | 8,343 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Northfield IL | 5,632 | $162K | 3.2% | 2.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,182 | Northgate OH | 6,723 | $74K | 9.7% | 3.2% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,183 | Solvang CA | 5,944 | $109K | 11.3% | 1.8% | 21% | B+ |
| 1,184 | Geneseo IL | 6,505 | $70K | 2.6% | 3.5% | 33% | B+ |
| 1,185 | South Williamsport PA | 6,124 | $65K | 4.4% | 3.0% | 7% | B+ |
| 1,186 | Sturtevant WI | 6,852 | $93K | 7.4% | 5.8% | 6% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,218 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Geneseo, 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 Geneseo: questions
What is the median household income in Geneseo?
$70,147 (±$10,481) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Geneseo?
2.6%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Geneseo?
19 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Geneseo work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Moline (7%, 18 mi), Davenport (6%, 24 mi), Rock Island (4%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Geneseo walkable?
Geneseo is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Geneseo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Geneseo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Geneseo
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.