Photo: Andrew Filer from Seattle (ex-Minneapolis) · CC BY-SA 2.0Where Forbes earns its living
Hardly any stay in Forbes for work; outside it, Oakes is the main destination (20%, 36 miles). 20% of workers work from home, against 8% across North Dakota. Employers in Forbes report 14 jobs for 15 working residents.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 15 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 14 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.93 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where people from Forbes work
Where Forbes clocks in
20% of workers
13% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 43% of the jobs in Forbes
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forbes, 2013 → 2023: 8 → 14. 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 Forbes’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Working from home in Forbes
of Forbes workers work from home, vs 8% across North Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 16 commuters (the 20% who work from home are left out). Across North Dakota: 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 Forbes
About 47% 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.
Forbes and the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Forbes workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forbes | – | — | — | — | $101,563 |
| Lorraine Township | under 7% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Lorraine Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Forbes’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 Forbes: questions
What is the median household income in Forbes?
$101,563 (±$31,604) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,657 across North Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forbes?
6.7%, against 10.8% across North Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
Where do people who live in Forbes work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Oakes (20%, 36 mi), Ellendale (13%, 13 mi), Gwinner (13%, 58 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Forbes 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 Forbes, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forbes
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.