Pleasant Garden has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
Only 1% stay in Pleasant Garden for work; outside it, Greensboro is the main destination (41%, 11 miles). There are 637 jobs in Pleasant Garden; 2,176 of its residents have a job. Pleasant Garden grades A− for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Pleasant Garden and work: the main findings
Pleasant Garden and Greensboro trade workers both ways
Greensboro is the top workplace for Pleasant Garden residents (41%) and also where the most people who work in Pleasant Garden come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Pleasant Garden than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Pleasant Garden fell from 1,028 in 2014 to 637 in 2024, −38%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Pleasant Garden is a place people come home to
There are 637 jobs based in Pleasant Garden, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Pleasant Garden has about 3,600 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.
Why Pleasant Garden gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Pleasant Garden is better than 80% of U.S. towns, #42 of 290 in North Carolina. Unemployment is its strongest input (1.9%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (9.7%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Pleasant Garden could be anywhere from B− to A+.
Where Pleasant Garden goes to work
Where Pleasant Garden clocks in
41% 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.
What Pleasant Garden’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pleasant Garden, 2014 → 2024: 1,028 → 637. 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 Pleasant Garden’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Pleasant Garden on a workday
On a workday 2,154 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 615 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,600 people are in Pleasant Garden 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.
A commute of about 27 minutes in Pleasant Garden
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pleasant Garden workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,027 commuters (the 17% 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.
How far Pleasant Garden’s workers travel
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Pleasant Garden: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pleasant Garden is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns, #266 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 2,448 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). 2.7% of Pleasant Garden households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Pleasant Garden’s commuters take a bus or train.
Pleasant Garden next to U.S. towns of 3,600 to 7,000: 816th of 3,696 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 91 | Jamestown NC | 3,803 | $105K | 2.5% | 0.7% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 201 | Fairview NC | 3,805 | $99K | 1.8% | 1.8% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 303 | Midland NC | 5,151 | $101K | 4.1% | 1.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 814 | Rio Pinar FL | 4,985 | $100K | 7.8% | 3.9% | 2% | A− |
| 815 | Gibraltar MI | 4,792 | $92K | 3.2% | 5.0% | 3% | A− |
| 816 | Pleasant Garden NC | 5,165 | $88K | 9.7% | 1.9% | 1% | A− |
| 817 | Pleasant View TN | 5,797 | $109K | 1.4% | 6.4% | 5% | A− |
| 818 | Brookfield WI | 6,515 | $89K | 7.9% | 3.6% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,696 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Pleasant Garden, 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 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 Pleasant Garden: questions
What is the median household income in Pleasant Garden?
$88,204 (±$16,191) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pleasant Garden?
9.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pleasant Garden?
27 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pleasant Garden work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greensboro (41%, 11 mi), High Point (6%, 14 mi), Charlotte (5%, 79 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Pleasant Garden walkable?
Pleasant Garden is more walkable than 13% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pleasant Garden without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pleasant Garden, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pleasant Garden
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.