Photo: Doug Kerr from Upstate New York · CC BY-SA 2.0Most of Adams commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
Only 2% work in Adams; the top destination outside it is Watertown (30%, 13 miles). There are 277 jobs in Adams, and 605 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Adams C; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Adams: the figures worth knowing
30% of Adams works in Watertown
179 working residents, 30%, have their main job in Watertown, 13 miles away. That’s 15 times as many as work in Adams itself. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Adams are quick
The average trip to work takes 27 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
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 605 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Adams’ Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Adams is better than 29% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Adams’ grade up (8.9%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.6%) is left out: Adams’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Adams could be anywhere from D to B−.
Where Adams’ working residents head each day
Where Adams clocks in
9% 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.
About 27 minutes each way, quicker than most of New York
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Adams workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 610 commuters (the 13% who work from home are left out). Across New York: 57% drive alone, 25% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who commutes out of Adams, and who commutes in
On a workday 592 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 264 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Adams on a workday afternoon, 20% 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 2023, primary jobs.
What Adams’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Adams, 2013 → 2023: 354 → 277. 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 Adams’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Adams
About 24% 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.
Driving is how Adams gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Adams is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 701 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). 11.6% of Adams households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Adams’ commuters take a bus or train.
Adams places 3,667th of 6,161 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 4 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 5 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,665 | Wausaukee WI | 1,138 | $69K | 7.5% | 3.7% | 4% | C |
| 3,666 | Corvallis MT | 1,227 | $78K | 12.9% | 4.3% | 5% | C |
| 3,667 | Adams NY | 1,636 | $64K | 8.9% | 1.6% | 2% | C |
| 3,668 | Sherwood Township MI | 1,983 | $65K | 9.9% | 6.1% | 1% | C |
| 3,669 | Tekonsha Township MI | 1,579 | $69K | 15.4% | 6.8% | 4% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Adams, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
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 Adams: questions
What is the median household income in Adams?
$64,432 (±$10,226) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Adams?
8.9%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Adams?
27 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Adams work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Watertown (30%, 13 mi), Watertown (12%, 10 mi), Adams (9%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Adams walkable?
Adams is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Adams without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Adams, from the people who make the trip.
More of Adams
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.