Photo: Harrison Keely · CC BY 4.0There are 4.0 jobs in Highlands for every working resident, and 1,533 people commute in
Highlands has 1,664 jobs, against 417 working residents. The two grades for Highlands are C+ for jobs and income and A for walkability. About one in three work in Highlands; the top destination outside it is Franklin (3%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Highlands
Highlands fills up on a workday
Highlands has 1,664 jobs, 4.0 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,400 people are in town, more than double the 1,100 who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Highlands are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 25 across North Carolina. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical North Carolina worker. Time on the road ↓
Highlands has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Highlands went from 1,180 in 2013 to 1,664 in 2023, +41%. 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 417 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How Highlands earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Highlands is better than 35% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Highlands’ grade up (7.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 14% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (4.3%) is left out: Highlands’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, Highlands could be anywhere from C− to B.
Who leaves Highlands for work, and who comes in
On a workday 286 residents head out to work and 131 work right here.
About 2,400 people are in Highlands on a workday afternoon, 111% more than live here.
4.0 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
From Highlands, about 15 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Highlands workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 341 commuters (the 24% 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.
What Highlands’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Highlands, 2013 → 2023: 1,180 → 1,664. 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 Highlands’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Highlands live
Where Highlands clocks in
3% of workers
3% 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 far it is to work from Highlands
About 25% 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.
In Highlands, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Highlands is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 33.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.9% across North Carolina, on an EPA index of 8.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 447 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). 7.6% of Highlands households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Highlands’ commuters take a bus or train.
How Highlands ranks: 1,868th of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 206 | Montreat NC | 1,024 | $116K | 0.0% | 9.6% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 235 | Advance NC | 1,408 | $115K | 5.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,866 | Main Township PA | 1,290 | $71K | 13.8% | 8.4% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,867 | Solomon KS | 1,007 | $51K | 5.9% | 2.6% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,868 | Highlands NC | 1,127 | $72K | 7.9% | 4.3% | 31% | C+ |
| 1,869 | Central High OK | 1,229 | $75K | 9.9% | 2.4% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,870 | Sunderland VT | 1,058 | $89K | 11.2% | 4.9% | 6% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Highlands, 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 Highlands: questions
What is the median household income in Highlands?
$71,509 (±$8,961) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Highlands?
7.9%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Highlands?
15 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 24% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Highlands work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Franklin (3%, 14 mi), Charlotte (3%, 134 mi), Asheville (3%, 51 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Highlands walkable?
Highlands is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 33% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Highlands without a car?
0% 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 Highlands, from the people who make the trip.
More of Highlands
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.