Photo: Rph92 · CC BY 4.0With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Essex works elsewhere
Employers in Essex report 5,088 jobs for 17,207 working residents. Jobs and income earn Essex B−; getting around on foot earns it A. For 8% of workers, the job is at home, next to 19% for Maryland as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Essex, in brief
Essex and Baltimore trade workers both ways
Baltimore is the top workplace for Essex residents (28%) and also where the most people who work in Essex come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Essex is a place people come home to
There are 5,088 jobs based in Essex, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Essex has about 28,000 people in it, 30% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Inside Essex’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Essex is better than 45% of U.S. towns, #232 of 261 in Maryland. Job access by car holds Essex’s grade up (ahead of 88% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (6.2%, U.S. 5.2%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Essex could be anywhere from C+ to B.
28% of working residents work in Baltimore
Where Essex clocks in
28% of workers
5% 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.
How a workday changes Essex
On a workday 16,643 residents head out to work, 564 work right here, and 4,524 people come in from elsewhere.
About 28,000 people are in Essex on a workday afternoon, 30% 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 2024, primary jobs.
The kinds of work in Essex
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Essex, 2014 → 2024: 5,640 → 5,088. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Essex’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Essex takes about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Essex workers work from home, vs 19% across Maryland. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 18,350 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Maryland: 80% drive alone, 5% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How many miles Essex commutes
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Essex is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 19,838 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 80% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 24% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 10.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 94% 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). 11.3% of Essex households have no vehicle (Maryland 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Essex’s commuters take a bus or train.
Essex next to U.S. towns of 28,000 to 55,000: 815th of 1,101 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 2 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Leawood KS | 34,093 | $186K | 3.1% | 2.0% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Severna Park MD | 40,228 | $170K | 2.8% | 2.7% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Pasadena MD | 34,309 | $130K | 5.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Potomac MD | 45,902 | $237K | 3.9% | 3.6% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 813 | Findlay OH | 40,370 | $61K | 12.3% | 3.5% | 43% | B− |
| 814 | Mission Bend TX | 36,586 | $67K | 10.8% | 9.4% | <1% | B− |
| 815 | Essex MD | 40,580 | $67K | 12.6% | 6.2% | 3% | B− |
| 816 | Palm Desert CA | 53,259 | $78K | 11.0% | 6.4% | 21% | B− |
| 817 | North Tonawanda NY | 29,806 | $67K | 12.4% | 5.8% | 13% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,101 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 25% | 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 Essex, the top three, the last and three more from Maryland.
Essex and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Middle River (4%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Essex workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essex | – | B− | A | 29 min | $67,168 |
| Middle River | 4% | B | A− | 28 min | $78,398 |
| Rosedale | under 2% | B | A | 29 min | $85,711 |
| Dundalk | 3% | C+ | A | 25 min | $64,520 |
| Bowleys Quarters | under 2% | A− | B | 29 min | $99,534 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Essex’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 2024, 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 Essex: questions
What is the median household income in Essex?
$67,168 (±$4,111) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,678 across Maryland and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Essex?
12.6%, against 9.4% across Maryland and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Essex?
29 minutes each way on average, against 31 across Maryland and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Essex work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Baltimore (28%, 9 mi), Towson (5%, 11 mi), Middle River (4%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Essex walkable?
Essex is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 11.6 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Essex without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 24% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Essex, from the people who make the trip.
More of Essex
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.