About two in three of Jerome’s working residents commute to Springfield
Home is the office for 9% of workers (Illinois 16%). For jobs and income Jerome is better than 69% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns (A+). Hardly any work in Jerome; the top destination outside it is Springfield (64%, 2 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Jerome apart on work
More than half of Jerome works in Springfield
476 working residents, 64%, have their main job in Springfield, 2.4 miles away. That’s 64 times as many as work in Jerome itself. The commute map ↓
Most Jerome residents work close to home
71% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Jerome than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Jerome fell from 433 in 2013 to 277 in 2023, −36%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 740 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Jerome
Unemployment holds Jerome’s grade up (2.8%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($65,189, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Jerome could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Where Jerome’s working residents head each day
Where Jerome clocks in
64% of workers
2% 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.
Half of Jerome commutes less than 3 miles
About 22% 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 the 277 jobs in Jerome are
277 jobs are based in Jerome.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Jerome, 2013 → 2023: 433 → 277. 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 Jerome’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Jerome on a workday afternoon
On a workday 735 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 272 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Jerome on a workday afternoon, 28% fewer than live here.
0.37 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 2023, primary jobs.
About 20 minutes each way for Jerome’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Jerome workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 968 commuters (the 9% 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.
In Jerome, walking beats the bus
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,065 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 50% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 7.9% of Jerome households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Jerome’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200, Jerome ranks 1,200th of 6,161 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% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Bannockburn IL | 1,308 | $214K | 5.1% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,198 | Shandon CA | 1,169 | $107K | 1.6% | 10.4% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,199 | Loma CO | 1,350 | $141K | 5.9% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,200 | Jerome IL | 1,627 | $65K | 6.4% | 2.8% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,201 | Chesterfield MA | 1,154 | $104K | 6.4% | 2.9% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,202 | Lincoln NY | 1,817 | $96K | 6.9% | 1.6% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Jerome, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
Jerome and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Woodside Township (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Jerome workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jerome | – | B+ | A+ | 20 min | $65,189 |
| Woodside Township | 2% | B | A | 18 min | $73,007 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Jerome’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 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 Jerome: questions
What is the median household income in Jerome?
$65,189 (±$12,408) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Jerome?
6.4%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Jerome?
20 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Jerome work?
1% work in town.
Is Jerome walkable?
Jerome is more walkable than 96% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 14.8 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Jerome without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 50% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Jerome, from the people who make the trip.
More of Jerome
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.