Photo: Dennisyerger84 · CC BY-SA 3.0Hobart at work: jobs, income and the commute
4% of workers work from home, against 11% across Indiana. For jobs and income Hobart is better than 62% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (B−). About one in seven work in Hobart itself; outside it, Chicago draws the most (9%, 31 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Hobart: the gist
Hobart trades workers with the towns around it
Hobart has about as many jobs (13,719) as working residents (13,550), but they are mostly different people: 11,699 residents leave for work each day while 11,868 people come in. Only 13% of the jobs in Hobart are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Hobart’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Hobart is Chicago, IL, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (1,187) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Hobart workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 11% across Indiana. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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.
What’s behind Hobart’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Hobart’s grade up (ahead of 84% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (4.3%, U.S. 5.2%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hobart could be anywhere from C+ to A.
How a workday changes Hobart
On a workday 11,699 residents head out to work, 1,851 work right here, and 11,868 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.01 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The distance from Hobart to work
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.
Getting to work from Hobart takes about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hobart workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 14,030 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Indiana: 85% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Commuting out of Hobart: the destinations
Where Hobart clocks in
9% of workers
8% of workers
7% 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.
What Hobart’s employers do
13,719 jobs are based in Hobart.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hobart, 2013 → 2023: 12,780 → 13,719. 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 Hobart’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most trips from Hobart start in a car
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.3% across Indiana.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 14,594 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 6.9% of Hobart households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Hobart’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Hobart is 768th among 1,366 U.S. towns of 21,000 to 40,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | St. John IN | 24,841 | $131K | 2.1% | 2.3% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Zionsville IN | 33,624 | $172K | 3.1% | 2.8% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 64 | Perry Township IN | 39,325 | $112K | 3.4% | 1.3% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 766 | Willoughby OH | 24,234 | $71K | 9.5% | 4.1% | 11% | B |
| 767 | Lake Magdalene FL | 32,083 | $76K | 13.0% | 3.6% | 4% | B |
| 768 | Hobart IN | 29,298 | $75K | 10.0% | 4.3% | 14% | B |
| 769 | Delhi Township MI | 28,431 | $90K | 10.3% | 5.1% | 8% | B |
| 770 | Spring Valley CA | 31,969 | $109K | 9.5% | 10.5% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,366 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Hobart, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
15% of Hobart works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Merrillville (8%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hobart workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hobart | – | B | B− | 27 min | $75,160 |
| Lake Station | under 3% | C | B− | 27 min | $59,591 |
| Merrillville | 8% | C+ | B+ | 32 min | $67,587 |
| Hobart Township | under 3% | C+ | B− | 27 min | $70,273 |
| Union Township | under 3% | A− | D | 32 min | $115,664 |
| Ross Township | under 3% | B− | B+ | 32 min | $72,416 |
| New Chicago | under 3% | C+ | C | 23 min | $57,313 |
| Calumet Township | under 3% | C− | B | 27 min | $46,882 |
| Gary | 7% | C− | B | 26 min | $38,731 |
| Portage Township | under 3% | B− | C+ | 27 min | $76,594 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Hobart’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 Hobart: questions
What is the median household income in Hobart?
$75,160 (±$7,447) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hobart?
10.0%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hobart?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hobart work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chicago (9%, 31 mi), Merrillville (8%, 4 mi), Gary (7%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hobart walkable?
Hobart is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hobart without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hobart, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hobart
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.