Most of Macon commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
For 6% of workers, the job is at home (Illinois 16%). There are 264 jobs in Macon; 488 of its residents have a job. The two grades for Macon are B− for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Macon in brief
Macon’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Macon is better than 45% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Macon’s grade up (7.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.0%) is left out: Macon’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, Macon could be anywhere from C− to B+.
43% of working residents work in Decatur
Where Macon clocks in
3% 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.
Macon by day and by night
On a workday 446 residents head out to work, 42 work right here, and 222 people come in from elsewhere.
About 900 people are in Macon on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
Macon is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Macon, 2013 → 2023: 210 → 264. 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 Macon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Macon’s commute takes about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Macon workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 457 commuters (the 6% 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.
How far Macon goes to work
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.
The commute in Macon is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Macon is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 5.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 486 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). 1.6% of Macon households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Macon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Macon is 1,436th of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,434 | Portage Township OH | 1,202 | $85K | 11.9% | 2.4% | 10% | B− |
| 1,435 | Shoreham VT | 1,284 | $94K | 8.3% | 0.4% | 5% | B− |
| 1,436 | Macon IL | 1,120 | $69K | 7.4% | 2.0% | 9% | B− |
| 1,437 | Manito IL | 1,473 | $72K | 8.3% | 2.9% | 23% | B− |
| 1,438 | Upper Turkeyfoot Township PA | 1,036 | $75K | 4.8% | 6.8% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Macon, 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 Macon: questions
What is the median household income in Macon?
$68,750 (±$24,240) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Macon?
7.4%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Macon?
29 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Macon work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Decatur (43%, 11 mi), Springfield (3%, 35 mi), Bloomington (2%, 53 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Macon walkable?
Macon is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Macon 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 Macon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Macon
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.