Looking Glass Township has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Looking Glass Township has 1,157 jobs, against 2,776 working residents. Jobs and income earn Looking Glass Township A−; getting around on foot earns it B+. About one in ten stay in Looking Glass Township for work; outside it, St. Louis is the main destination (7%, 33 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Looking Glass Township and work: the main findings
The four measures behind Looking Glass Township’s grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Looking Glass Township is better than 83% of U.S. towns, #207 of 768 in Illinois. Unemployment is its strongest input (1.6%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 65% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Looking Glass Township could be anywhere from B+ to A.
Where people from Looking Glass Township work
Where Looking Glass Township clocks in
7% of workers
6% 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.
Who commutes out of Looking Glass Township, and who commutes in
On a workday 2,491 residents head out to work, 285 work right here, and 872 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,800 people are in Looking Glass Township on a workday afternoon, 25% 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.
What Looking Glass Township’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Looking Glass Township, 2013 → 2023: 950 → 1,157. 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 Looking Glass Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 26 minutes each way, about the IL average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Looking Glass Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,090 commuters (the 12% 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.
Looking Glass Township’s commute, mile by mile
About 15% 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.
Looking Glass Township is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Looking Glass Township is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #424 of 768 in Illinois. 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 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,513 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). 1.2% of Looking Glass Township households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Looking Glass Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 4,500 to 8,700, Looking Glass Township ranks 665th of 3,306 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | South Barrington IL | 5,071 | $222K | 1.0% | 2.0% | 4% | A+ |
| 12 | Long Grove IL | 8,343 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 35 | Northfield IL | 5,632 | $162K | 3.2% | 2.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 663 | Cedarhurst NY | 7,334 | $102K | 6.4% | 4.8% | 9% | A− |
| 664 | Elk Ridge UT | 4,969 | $143K | 1.9% | 4.1% | 2% | A− |
| 665 | Looking Glass Township IL | 6,427 | $92K | 7.3% | 1.6% | 10% | A− |
| 666 | East Allen Township PA | 5,472 | $98K | 5.8% | 3.4% | 3% | A− |
| 667 | Jamestown RI | 5,480 | $141K | 3.5% | 4.9% | 16% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,306 | 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 Looking Glass Township, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
The towns around Looking Glass Township
The biggest share goes to Sugar Creek Township (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Looking Glass Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Looking Glass Township | – | A− | B+ | 26 min | $92,163 |
| Venedy Township | under 3% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| Germantown Township | under 3% | A− | C+ | 29 min | $96,806 |
| Sugar Creek Township | 3% | A− | B | 27 min | $102,723 |
| Mascoutah Township | under 3% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| Engelmann Township | under 3% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Venedy Township and Engelmann Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Mascoutah Township: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Looking Glass Township’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 Looking Glass Township: questions
What is the median household income in Looking Glass Township?
$92,163 (±$9,427) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Looking Glass Township?
7.3%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Looking Glass Township?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Looking Glass Township work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. Louis (7%, 33 mi), Belleville (6%, 18 mi), New Baden (5%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Looking Glass Township walkable?
Looking Glass Township is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Looking Glass Township without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Looking Glass Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Looking Glass Township
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.