La Fayette has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers, next to 16% for Illinois as a whole. La Fayette has 32 jobs for 73 working residents. Only 1% work in La Fayette; the top destination outside it is Bradford (8%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
La Fayette quiets down on a workday
On a workday 72 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 31 people come in from elsewhere.
About 120 people are in La Fayette on a workday afternoon, 26% 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 2024, primary jobs.
Where La Fayette goes to work
Where La Fayette clocks in
8% 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.
Goods, not services: 94% of the jobs in La Fayette
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in La Fayette, 2014 → 2024: 2 → 32. 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 La Fayette’s own residents hold wherever they work.
La Fayette’s commute takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of La Fayette workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 78 commuters (the 0% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from La Fayette
About 30% 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.
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 La Fayette: questions
What is the median household income in La Fayette?
$51,346 (±$7,427) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in La Fayette?
4.5%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from La Fayette?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in La Fayette work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bradford (8%, 17 mi), Toulon (8%, 6 mi), Kewanee (8%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Can you get around La Fayette without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from La Fayette, from the people who make the trip.
More of La Fayette
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.