Altamont has 0.2 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Measured by household income, Altamont is ahead of 85% of U.S. towns. 119 jobs are based in Altamont, and 776 of its residents work somewhere. Altamont grades A− 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
Work in Altamont: the figures worth knowing
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Altamont
On income, poverty and job access, Altamont is better than 82% of U.S. towns. Household income is its strongest input ($112,159, U.S. $80,734); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 60% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Altamont’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, Altamont could be anywhere from B to A.
Who works in Altamont, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 755 residents head out to work, 21 work right here, and 98 people come in from elsewhere.
About 990 people are in Altamont on a workday afternoon, 40% 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.
24% of working residents work in Albany
Where Altamont clocks in
24% of workers
16% of workers
14% 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.
Jobs in Altamont: what the 119 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Altamont, 2013 → 2023: 179 → 119. 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 Altamont’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 31 minutes to work from Altamont
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Altamont workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 727 commuters (the 21% 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.
The distance from Altamont to work
About 17% 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.
Most trips from Altamont start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Altamont is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 32.9% across New York.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 917 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). 6.1% of Altamont households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Altamont’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Altamont is 536th among 5,381 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Atlantic Beach NY | 1,723 | $166K | 1.8% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 534 | Wolf Creek UT | 1,339 | $131K | 1.3% | 0.0% | 4% | A− |
| 535 | Manhattan MT | 2,073 | $88K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 9% | A− |
| 536 | Altamont NY | 1,648 | $112K | 6.4% | 0.8% | 3% | A− |
| 537 | Surrey ND | 1,450 | $106K | 1.4% | 3.4% | 1% | A− |
| 538 | Lindsay TX | 1,261 | $115K | 2.8% | 0.5% | 3% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,381 | 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 Altamont, 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 Altamont: questions
What is the median household income in Altamont?
$112,159 (±$19,448) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Altamont?
6.4%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Altamont?
31 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Altamont work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Albany (24%, 12 mi), Guilderland (16%, 4 mi), Colonie (14%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Altamont walkable?
Altamont is more walkable than 46% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Altamont without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Altamont, from the people who make the trip.
More of Altamont
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.