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Lee and Gottliebe Fritz HouseLee and Gottliebe Fritz House · Photo: Ammodramus · CC0
Jobs & commute in Gordon

Household incomes in Gordon are lower than in 75% of U.S. towns

About two in five work in Gordon; the top destination outside it is Rushville (5%, 15 miles). Poverty touches 14.1% of residents, where Nebraska as a whole has 10.6%. Gordon grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.

Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made

Jobs & income grade

The four measures behind Gordon’s grade

On income, poverty and job access, Gordon is better than 10% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Gordon’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).

Household income $59,226 (±$7,028) · NE $76,475 · U.S. $80,734Higher than 25% of U.S. towns
Poverty 14.1% · NE 10.6% · U.S. 12.5%Lower than 31% of U.S. towns
Job access by car EPA, jobs within a 45-minute driveMore than 3% of U.S. towns

Unemployment (2.4%) is left out: Gordon’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.

D−C−

A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Gordon could be anywhere from D− to C−.

How TownRatings grades jobs & income →

Day and night

Who works in Gordon, and who works elsewhere

On a workday 420 residents head out to work, 283 work right here, and 429 people come in from elsewhere.

420live here, work elsewhere
283live and work here
429work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night1,400
Workday1,400
1,400live here− 420head out to work+ 430come in to work= 1,400on a workday

About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.

Job hub or commuter town?
1.01jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

About as many jobs as working residents (1.01 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.

The commute map

Where Gordon goes to work

Hay SpringsGordonRushville: 38 residents work here (5%)Valentine: 10 residents work here (1%)Chadron: 15 residents work here (2%)Alliance: 13 residents work here (2%)GeringScottsbluffSidneyGrand IslandLincoln: 15 residents work here (2%)Omaha: 16 residents work here (2%)Batesland: 30 residents work here (4%)Wounded Knee: 15 residents work here (2%)Pine Ridge: 10 residents work here (1%)RushvilleBateslandOmahaChadronLincolnWounded KneeGordon
1
Gordon (in town)right here
40%283
2
Rushville14.8 mi away
5%38
3
Batesland, SD22.8 mi away
4%30
4
Omaha333.1 mi away
2%16
5
Chadron40.5 mi away
2%15
6
Lincoln316.3 mi away
2%15
7
Wounded Knee, SD24.7 mi away
2%15
8
Alliance59.5 mi away
2%13
9
Valentine84.1 mi away
1%10
10
Pine Ridge, SD23.3 mi away
1%10
Everywhere elseother towns and states
37%258
The top trips

Where Gordon clocks in

Lines 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.

The jobs

Inside Gordon’s 712 jobs

712 jobs are based in Gordon.

Jobs based in GordonJobs Gordon residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms18%18%
Trade, transport & utilities25%19%
Services: health, schools, offices57%63%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less21%20%
$1,251–$3,333 a month36%34%
Over $3,333 a month43%46%

Who does it

29 or younger17%18%
30 to 5454%52%
55 and older29%30%
−4%

Jobs based in Gordon, 2013 → 2023: 738 → 712. 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 Gordon’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Time on the road

About 16 minutes to work from Gordon

A year of commuting
120 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Gordon16 min
Nebraska19 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
4%

of Gordon workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.

About 0 in 10
How Gordon gets to work
68%Drive alone
24%Carpool
6%Walk
2%Other

Share of the 732 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Nebraska: 86% 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

How far it is to work from Gordon

10 mi25 mi50 mi80 miRushville: 5% · 14.8 miBatesland: 4% · 22.8 miOmaha: 2% · 333.1 miChadron: 2% · 40.5 miLincoln: 2% · 316.3 miWounded Knee: 2% · 24.7 miAlliance: 2% · 59.5 miValentine: 1% · 84.1 miPine Ridge: 1% · 23.3 miRushville 5%Batesland 4%Omaha 2%Chadron 2%Lincoln 2%Gordon
GordonTop destinations (size = commuters)
49%Under 10 mi315 residents
17%10–24 mi112 residents
6%25–50 mi38 residents
28%Over 50 mi178 residents

About 28% 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.

Getting around · Walkability grade

Driving is how Gordon gets around

On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Gordon is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across Nebraska, on an EPA index of 6.5.

EPA walkability index 6.5 of 20 · typical NE town 7.7 · U.S. 6.9Higher than 43% of U.S. towns
Walk, bike or transit 5.8% of commuters · NE 3.5% · U.S. 7.1%Higher than 80% of U.S. towns
B+B+

A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 763 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). 6.0% of Gordon households have no vehicle (Nebraska 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gordon’s commuters take a bus or train.

Towns its size

4,849th of 5,877: where Gordon ranks among U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900

#TownPeopleHousehold incomePovertyUnemploymentWork in townGrade
1Somerset MD1,151$250K1.9%2.3%<1%A+
2Bellerose NY1,169$232K1.6%6.1%1%A+
3Baxter Estates NY1,014$154K1.0%3.1%1%A+
…
172Yutan NE1,451$103K0.7%8.8%2%A
…
234Buccaneer Bay NE1,418$161K4.9%0.0%<1%A
…
307Pohocco Township NE1,296$100K2.1%0.0%3%A
…
4,847Marmaduke AR1,254$51K23.7%0.9%8%D
4,848Mineral Springs AR1,036$52K16.1%3.4%6%D
4,849Gordon NE1,417$59K14.1%2.4%40%D
4,850Long Beach WA1,769$53K13.1%3.3%26%D
4,851Eagle River WI1,715$55K14.4%4.9%27%D
…
5,877Oglala SD1,071$21K68.8%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 Gordon, the top three, the last and three more from Nebraska.

How to read these numbers

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.

How these figures and grades are made →

Jobs and commuting in Gordon: questions

What is the median household income in Gordon?

$59,226 (±$7,028) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.

What is the poverty rate in Gordon?

14.1%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).

How long is the commute from Gordon?

16 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.

Where do people who live in Gordon work?

40% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rushville (5%, 15 mi), Batesland (4%, 23 mi), Omaha (2%, 333 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).

Is Gordon walkable?

Gordon is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.

Can you get around Gordon without a car?

0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Gordon, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
Ask neighbors
Beyond the commute

More of Gordon

Gordon home →

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.