Ladd has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
Ladd has 138 jobs, against 527 working residents. The two grades for Ladd are B− for jobs and income and C− for walkability. For 2% of workers, the job is at home, next to 16% for Illinois as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Ladd apart on work
Ladd and Spring Valley trade workers both ways
Spring Valley is the top workplace for Ladd residents (17%) and also where the most people who work in Ladd come from (12% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Ladd is a place people come home to
There are 138 jobs based in Ladd, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Ladd has about 1,000 people in it, 28% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Ladd are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. Time on the road ↓
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 527 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Ladd’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Ladd is better than 50% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Ladd’s grade up (6.4%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($67,321, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.5%) is left out: Ladd’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, Ladd could be anywhere from C to B+.
17% of working residents work in Spring Valley
Where Ladd clocks in
15% of workers
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.
Ladd quiets down on a workday
On a workday 519 residents head out to work, 8 work right here, and 130 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Ladd on a workday afternoon, 28% 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.
About 17 minutes each way, quicker than most of Illinois
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ladd workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 691 commuters (the 3% 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.
Ladd makes things: 30% of its jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ladd, 2013 → 2023: 159 → 138. 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 Ladd’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Ladd commutes
About 31% 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.
Ladd is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ladd is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Ladd near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 709 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). 2.1% of Ladd households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ladd’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Ladd comes 2,009th 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,007 | Masaryktown FL | 1,262 | $61K | 6.5% | 2.7% | 0% | B− |
| 2,008 | Highpoint OH | 1,132 | $47K | 9.5% | 10.5% | 0% | B− |
| 2,009 | Ladd IL | 1,384 | $67K | 6.4% | 2.5% | 2% | B− |
| 2,010 | Wilmington NY | 1,182 | $82K | 4.0% | 0.0% | 6% | B− |
| 2,011 | Fairfield Township OH | 1,096 | $74K | 2.7% | 1.8% | 0% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Ladd, 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 Ladd: questions
What is the median household income in Ladd?
$67,321 (±$9,994) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ladd?
6.4%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ladd?
17 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ladd work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Spring Valley (17%, 4 mi), Peru (15%, 4 mi), LaSalle (5%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ladd walkable?
Ladd is more walkable than 20% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ladd without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ladd, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ladd
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.