National Biscuit Company Carton Making and Printing Plant · Photo: Rolf Müller (User:Rolfmueller) · CC BY-SA 3.0Beacon has higher unemployment (7.3%) than 84% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 79.0 in New York City. Jobs and income earn Beacon B; getting around on foot earns it A. Measured by household income, Beacon is ahead of 82% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Beacon
Beacon’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Beacon is New York City, 58 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (867) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Beacon trades workers with the towns around it
Beacon has about as many jobs (4,714) as working residents (5,269), but they are mostly different people: 4,486 residents leave for work each day while 3,931 people come in. Only 17% of the jobs in Beacon are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Beacon workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 41 minutes each way, against 33 across New York. Over a year that’s about 314 hours of commuting, 61 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Nearly all the work in Beacon is services
87% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 7% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
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.
How Beacon earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Beacon is better than 60% of U.S. towns, #340 of 758 in New York. Household income holds Beacon’s grade up ($107,859, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Beacon could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Short hops and long hauls from Beacon
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.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 4,486 residents head out to work, 783 work right here, and 3,931 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 (0.89 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.
Commuting from Beacon: about 41 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 13.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Beacon workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,996 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.
Most jobs in Beacon are in services
4,714 jobs are based in Beacon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Beacon, 2013 → 2023: 3,890 → 4,714. 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 Beacon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
16% of working residents work in New York City
Where Beacon clocks in
16% of workers
5% of workers
4% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Beacon
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Beacon is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns, #127 of 758 in New York. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 20.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 9.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 7,609 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 13% 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 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 52% 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). 7.1% of Beacon households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 15% of Beacon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Beacon is 1,271st among 2,362 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 20,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 56 | Floral Park NY | 16,105 | $150K | 3.0% | 3.1% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | East Rockaway NY | 10,096 | $125K | 2.6% | 3.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | North Castle NY | 12,360 | $208K | 3.8% | 3.1% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,269 | Lovejoy GA | 12,929 | $72K | 9.2% | 4.3% | 2% | B |
| 1,270 | Bargersville IN | 11,862 | $114K | 11.9% | 6.7% | 3% | B |
| 1,271 | Beacon NY | 14,931 | $108K | 9.0% | 7.3% | 15% | B |
| 1,272 | Forestville MD | 10,495 | $71K | 10.3% | 5.1% | 1% | B |
| 1,273 | Boiling Springs SC | 12,936 | $72K | 9.9% | 3.5% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,362 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Beacon, 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 Beacon: questions
What is the median household income in Beacon?
$107,859 (±$21,401) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Beacon?
9.0%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Beacon?
41 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 Beacon work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New York City (16%, 58 mi), Fishkill (5%, 2 mi), Poughkeepsie (4%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Beacon walkable?
Beacon is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.2 out of 20, and 21% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Beacon without a car?
15% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Beacon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Beacon
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.