Photo: Ben Jacobson (Kranar Drogin) · CC BY 2.5Monroe Center has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
67 jobs are based in Monroe Center, and 186 of its residents work somewhere. Hardly any work in Monroe Center itself; outside it, Rockford draws the most (24%, 12 miles). Home is the office for 8% of workers, where Illinois as a whole has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The daily flow of workers through Monroe Center
On a workday 185 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 66 people come in from elsewhere.
About 290 people are in Monroe Center on a workday afternoon, 29% 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.
Where Monroe Center goes to work
Where Monroe Center clocks in
24% of workers
4% 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.
Monroe Center works in goods: 31% of its jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Monroe Center, 2013 → 2023: 44 → 67. 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 Monroe Center’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 35 minutes each way for Monroe Center’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Monroe Center workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 188 commuters (the 8% 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.
Miles to work from Monroe Center
About 23% 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 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 Monroe Center: questions
What is the median household income in Monroe Center?
$93,056 (±$11,998) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Monroe Center?
4.9%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Monroe Center?
35 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Monroe Center work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rockford (24%, 12 mi), Rochelle (8%, 13 mi), DeKalb (4%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Monroe Center without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Monroe Center, from the people who make the trip.
More of Monroe Center
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.