Photo: jahebert 7 · CC BY 2.0More people are out of work in Slidell (5.8%) than in 72% of U.S. towns
Working residents average 29 minutes each way, next to 26 for Louisiana and 26 for the U.S. Slidell grades C+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in five work in Slidell; the top destination outside it is New Orleans (17%, 19 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Slidell: the figures worth knowing
Where Slidell’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Slidell is better than 39% of U.S. towns, #55 of 161 in Louisiana. Job access by car holds Slidell’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (15.7%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Slidell could be anywhere from C to B.
Where Slidell’s working residents head each day
Where Slidell clocks in
17% of workers
8% 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.
How many people are in Slidell by day
On a workday 8,945 residents head out to work, 2,079 work right here, and 13,465 people come in from elsewhere.
About 33,000 people are in Slidell on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.41 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.
What the 15,544 jobs in Slidell are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Slidell, 2013 → 2023: 13,475 → 15,544. 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 Slidell’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 29 minutes in Slidell
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Slidell workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,231 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across Louisiana: 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.
Slidell’s commute, mile by mile
About 16% 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.
For most of Slidell, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Slidell is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns, #56 of 161 in Louisiana. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.3% across Louisiana.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 12,631 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). 7.5% of Slidell households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Slidell’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,097th of 1,409: where Slidell ranks among U.S. towns of 20,000 to 38,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 150 | Prairieville LA | 35,238 | $105K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 7% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 295 | Central LA | 30,313 | $90K | 5.4% | 2.2% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 905 | Zachary LA | 20,621 | $84K | 8.5% | 6.9% | 10% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,095 | Oxford OH | 22,387 | $41K | 45.5% | 14.4% | 30% | C+ |
| 1,096 | South Valley NM | 37,120 | $58K | 18.5% | 4.3% | 7% | C+ |
| 1,097 | Slidell LA | 28,341 | $70K | 15.7% | 5.8% | 19% | C+ |
| 1,098 | Sun City AZ | 37,486 | $55K | 11.2% | 6.2% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,099 | Sulphur LA | 20,492 | $62K | 16.0% | 4.3% | 19% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,409 | 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 Slidell, the top three, the last and three more from Louisiana.
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 Slidell: questions
What is the median household income in Slidell?
$70,497 (±$7,225) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Slidell?
15.7%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Slidell?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Slidell work?
19% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New Orleans (17%, 19 mi), Covington (8%, 24 mi), Metairie (5%, 31 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Slidell walkable?
Slidell is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Slidell without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Slidell, from the people who make the trip.
More of Slidell
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.