Fulton County Courthouse · Photo: Kelly Donaldson · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Rochester (7.7%) is higher than in 87% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Rochester; the top destination outside it is Warsaw (5%, 22 miles). For jobs and income Rochester is better than 12% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (A). Household incomes here are lower than in 78% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Rochester stands out on work
The figures behind Rochester’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Rochester’s grade up (ahead of 31% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Rochester could be anywhere from D to C+.
Each way, about 21 minutes from Rochester
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rochester workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,668 commuters (the 3% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Rochester
On a workday 1,829 residents head out to work, 765 work right here, and 3,014 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,300 people are in Rochester on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.46 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 towns that employ Rochester’s residents
Where Rochester clocks in
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.
Goods, not services: 29% of the jobs in Rochester
3,779 jobs are based in Rochester.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rochester, 2013 → 2023: 3,805 → 3,779. 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 Rochester’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Rochester
About 24% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Rochester
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,756 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). 7.1% of Rochester households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Rochester’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 4,300 to 8,300, and where Rochester sits
| # | 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 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | Worth Township IN | 6,688 | $123K | 4.1% | 0.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 126 | Hidden Valley IN | 5,706 | $121K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 168 | New Whiteland IN | 5,937 | $90K | 3.3% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,070 | Grant Township IL | 5,364 | $61K | 14.5% | 7.6% | 23% | D |
| 3,071 | Alfred NY | 6,217 | $42K | 36.7% | 16.1% | 23% | D |
| 3,072 | Rochester IN | 6,132 | $57K | 18.1% | 7.7% | 29% | D |
| 3,073 | Tamaqua PA | 6,929 | $46K | 26.7% | 6.4% | 9% | D |
| 3,074 | Chester SC | 5,324 | $46K | 19.4% | 7.6% | 7% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,370 | 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 Rochester, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
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 Rochester: questions
What is the median household income in Rochester?
$57,008 (±$7,179) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rochester?
18.1%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rochester?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rochester work?
29% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Warsaw (5%, 22 mi), Rochester Township (4%, 2 mi), Plymouth (4%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rochester walkable?
Rochester is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rochester without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rochester, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rochester
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.