Photo: Augiejv · CC BY-SA 3.0Gilman at work: jobs, income and the commute
Home is the office for 4% of workers, against 16% across Illinois. The two grades for Gilman are C+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in five work in Gilman; the top destination outside it is Onarga (6%, 3 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Gilman: the gist
Why Gilman gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty and job access, Gilman is better than 44% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Gilman’s grade up (6.1%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (6.8%) is left out: Gilman’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, Gilman could be anywhere from C to B.
The trip to work from Gilman: about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gilman workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 777 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.
Gilman on a workday afternoon
On a workday 663 residents head out to work, 146 work right here, and 730 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 (1.08 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.
Where the trip to work from Gilman ends
Where Gilman clocks in
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.
Making and building: 34% of jobs based in Gilman
876 jobs are based in Gilman.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gilman, 2013 → 2023: 855 → 876. 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 Gilman’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Gilman works
About 28% 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 Gilman start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gilman is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 6.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 806 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). 4.7% of Gilman households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gilman’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Gilman is 2,536th among 5,760 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,534 | Oak Grove MS | 2,098 | $82K | 8.3% | 8.0% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,535 | Graysville AL | 1,855 | $70K | 10.6% | 7.1% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,536 | Gilman IL | 1,681 | $71K | 6.1% | 6.8% | 18% | C+ |
| 2,537 | Falconer NY | 2,210 | $60K | 10.9% | 3.5% | 9% | C+ |
| 2,538 | Dorchester Township IL | 1,473 | $69K | 6.1% | 2.2% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Gilman, 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 Gilman: questions
What is the median household income in Gilman?
$70,750 (±$6,098) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gilman?
6.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gilman?
27 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gilman work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Onarga (6%, 3 mi), Onarga Township (5%, 4 mi), Kankakee (5%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gilman walkable?
Gilman is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gilman without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gilman, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gilman
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.