Photo: John Phelan · CC BY 3.0Jobs and earnings in Erving, and the trip to work
4% of workers have no commute at all (Massachusetts 19%). Jobs and income earn Erving B−; getting around on foot earns it C+. Only 6% work in Erving itself; outside it, Greenfield draws the most (11%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Erving and work: the main findings
Erving has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Erving went from 309 in 2013 to 504 in 2023, +63%. The jobs ↓
Few Erving workers work from home
Only 4% of workers work from home, against 19% across Massachusetts. 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; with 727 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
The figures behind Erving’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Erving is better than 51% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Erving’s grade up (5.2%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Erving’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, Erving could be anywhere from C+ to B.
Goods, not services: 29% of the jobs in Erving
504 jobs are based in Erving.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Erving, 2013 → 2023: 309 → 504. 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 Erving’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Erving takes about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Erving workers work from home, vs 19% across Massachusetts. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 852 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Massachusetts: 75% drive alone, 8% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who leaves Erving for work, and who comes in
On a workday 683 residents head out to work, 44 work right here, and 460 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Erving on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.69 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
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 the trip to work from Erving ends
Where Erving clocks in
11% of workers
6% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Erving
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.
Few in Erving walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Erving is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 14.1% across Massachusetts, on an EPA index of 5.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 884 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 1.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 64% 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). 2.5% of Erving households have no vehicle (Massachusetts 11.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Erving’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,983rd of 5,381: where Erving ranks among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 509 | Whately MA | 1,622 | $117K | 5.4% | 4.7% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 606 | Otis MA | 1,610 | $109K | 1.2% | 6.2% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 638 | Wales MA | 1,833 | $89K | 5.1% | 5.5% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,981 | Noble Township IN | 1,415 | $98K | 2.6% | 12.9% | 1% | B− |
| 1,982 | Douglass Township KS | 1,961 | $83K | 11.7% | 5.8% | 6% | B− |
| 1,983 | Erving MA | 1,651 | $78K | 5.2% | 3.7% | 6% | B− |
| 1,984 | Kinderhook Township MI | 1,452 | $83K | 7.5% | 1.6% | 1% | B− |
| 1,985 | Jefferson Township PA | 1,920 | $75K | 8.4% | 4.4% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Erving, the top three, the last and three more from Massachusetts.
Next door to Erving
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Erving workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erving | – | B− | C+ | 28 min | $77,656 |
| Wendell | under 3% | — | — | 33 min | — |
| Montague | 6% | C | A− | 21 min | $70,510 |
| Millers Falls | under 3% | — | — | 25 min | — |
| Gill | under 3% | B | B+ | 21 min | $90,208 |
| Northfield | under 3% | B | D | 31 min | $103,375 |
| Orange | 3% | D | B+ | 33 min | $55,824 |
Same-state neighbors only. Wendell: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Millers Falls: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Montague. Darker towns draw more of Erving’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 Erving: questions
What is the median household income in Erving?
$77,656 (±$9,449) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,960 across Massachusetts and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Erving?
5.2%, against 10.0% across Massachusetts and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Erving?
28 minutes each way on average, against 29 across Massachusetts and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Erving work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greenfield (11%, 8 mi), Montague (6%, 5 mi), Amherst Town (5%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Erving walkable?
Erving is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Erving without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Erving, from the people who make the trip.
More of Erving
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.