Hardly anyone in Forest Oaks is out of work
The average commute takes 22 minutes each way, next to 25 for North Carolina and 26 for the U.S. Jobs and income earn Forest Oaks A−; getting around on foot earns it C. Measured by household income, Forest Oaks is ahead of 82% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Forest Oaks apart on work
Income, poverty and work: Forest Oaks’ grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Forest Oaks is better than 77% of U.S. towns, #56 of 290 in North Carolina. Unemployment holds Forest Oaks’ grade up (hardly any, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (20.4%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Forest Oaks could be anywhere from B to A+.
42% of working residents work in Greensboro
Where Forest Oaks clocks in
42% 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.
A workday in Forest Oaks: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 1,759 residents head out to work, 46 work right here, and 506 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,000 people are in Forest Oaks on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
0.31 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.
Forest Oaks is a services town
552 jobs are based in Forest Oaks.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forest Oaks, 2013 → 2023: 613 → 552. 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 Forest Oaks’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 22 minutes from Forest Oaks
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forest Oaks workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,398 commuters (the 20% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Forest Oaks
About 19% 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 Forest Oaks walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Forest Oaks is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns, #211 of 290 in North Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.9% across North Carolina.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,752 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 under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 4.4% of Forest Oaks households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Forest Oaks’ commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 3,000 to 5,800, Forest Oaks ranks 950th of 4,039 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 93 | Jamestown NC | 3,803 | $105K | 2.5% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 190 | Fairview NC | 3,805 | $99K | 1.8% | 1.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 286 | Midland NC | 5,151 | $101K | 4.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 948 | Seacliff CA | 3,299 | $130K | 5.5% | 4.9% | 3% | A− |
| 949 | Meadow Vista CA | 3,162 | $101K | 4.8% | 2.4% | 5% | A− |
| 950 | Forest Oaks NC | 4,293 | $108K | 20.4% | 0.0% | 3% | A− |
| 951 | Gluckstadt MS | 3,500 | $124K | 5.3% | 5.4% | 4% | A− |
| 952 | La Center WA | 4,433 | $102K | 5.7% | 3.6% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,039 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Forest Oaks, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Forest Oaks and its neighbors: 42% work next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Forest Oaks workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Oaks | – | A− | C | 22 min | $107,604 |
| Greensboro | 42% | C+ | A− | 22 min | $61,515 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Greensboro. Darker towns draw more of Forest Oaks’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 Forest Oaks: questions
What is the median household income in Forest Oaks?
$107,604 (±$36,055) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forest Oaks?
20.4%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forest Oaks?
22 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forest Oaks work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greensboro (42%, 10 mi), High Point (6%, 16 mi), Winston-Salem (5%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Forest Oaks walkable?
Forest Oaks is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Forest Oaks without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Forest Oaks, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forest Oaks
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.