Mingus Mill · Photo: David Dugan · CC BY-SA 3.0A job hub: Cherokee has 6.4 jobs per working resident, and 3,608 people come in to work
Employers in Cherokee report 3,833 jobs, and 602 of its residents work somewhere. The two grades for Cherokee are D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. For 0% of workers, the job is at home, where North Carolina as a whole has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Cherokee stands out on work
Cherokee fills up on a workday
Cherokee has 3,833 jobs, 6.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 5,300 people are in town, more than double the 2,100 who live here. Day and night ↓
Most Cherokee residents work close to home
74% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about three in four. How far ↓
Cherokee has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Cherokee went from 1,966 in 2013 to 3,833 in 2023, +95%. The jobs ↓
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 602 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Income, poverty and work: Cherokee’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Cherokee is better than 10% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Cherokee’s grade.
Unemployment (1.6%) is left out: Cherokee’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, Cherokee could be anywhere from D− to C.
The daily commute in and out of Cherokee
On a workday 377 residents head out to work and 225 work right here.
About 5,300 people are in Cherokee on a workday afternoon, 157% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Cherokee’s commute, mile by mile
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.
In Cherokee, services account for most jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cherokee, 2013 → 2023: 1,966 → 3,833. 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 Cherokee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Cherokee live
Where Cherokee clocks in
3% of workers
2% 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.
Each way, about 11 minutes from Cherokee
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cherokee workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 912 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across North Carolina: 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.
Most of Cherokee commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Cherokee is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 912 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). 6.9% of Cherokee households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Cherokee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,800, Cherokee ranks 4,937th of 5,793 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 65 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 98 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 168 | Wrightsville Beach NC | 2,397 | $152K | 4.0% | 0.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,935 | Eagle River WI | 1,715 | $55K | 14.4% | 4.9% | 27% | D |
| 4,936 | Liberty Township OH | 2,581 | $64K | 29.5% | 5.1% | 4% | D |
| 4,937 | Cherokee NC | 2,059 | $56K | 21.3% | 1.6% | 37% | D |
| 4,938 | Earle AR | 1,721 | $32K | 36.2% | 16.9% | 8% | D |
| 4,939 | Blacksburg SC | 1,965 | $32K | 31.4% | 10.5% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,793 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Cherokee, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
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 Cherokee: questions
What is the median household income in Cherokee?
$55,972 (±$23,565) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cherokee?
21.3%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cherokee?
11 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cherokee work?
37% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bryson City (3%, 9 mi), Asheville (2%, 42 mi), Sylva (2%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Cherokee walkable?
Cherokee is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Cherokee without a car?
0% 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 Cherokee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cherokee
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.