Photo: Stanley P. Mixon, Photographer · Public domainJobs, income and commuting in Chatham, NY
Only 8% work in Chatham itself; outside it, Ghent draws the most (14%, 4 miles). Jobs and income earn Chatham C+; getting around on foot earns it B+. The average commute takes 23 minutes each way, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Chatham
Chatham’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Chatham is better than 37% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Chatham’s grade up ($79,886, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 22% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.2%) is left out: Chatham’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, Chatham could be anywhere from D to B+.
The trip to work from Chatham: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chatham workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 856 commuters (the 12% 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 Chatham, and who commutes in
On a workday 575 residents head out to work, 49 work right here, and 847 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Chatham on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.44 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 towns that employ Chatham’s residents
Where Chatham clocks in
10% of workers
8% 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.
What Chatham’s employers do
896 jobs are based in Chatham.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chatham, 2013 → 2023: 1,100 → 896. 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 Chatham’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Chatham’s commute, mile by mile
About 25% 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 Chatham gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Chatham is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 975 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). 7.8% of Chatham households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Chatham’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Chatham is 2,892nd of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,890 | McCord OK | 1,553 | $83K | 11.6% | 2.6% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,891 | Fulda MN | 1,303 | $71K | 7.3% | 2.5% | 9% | C+ |
| 2,892 | Chatham NY | 1,538 | $80K | 10.7% | 2.2% | 8% | C+ |
| 2,893 | Trumansburg NY | 1,755 | $69K | 9.3% | 5.1% | 7% | C+ |
| 2,894 | Mountain View WY | 1,264 | $98K | 10.3% | 4.4% | 20% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | 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 Chatham, 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 Chatham: questions
What is the median household income in Chatham?
$79,886 (±$28,034) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Chatham?
10.7%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chatham?
23 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chatham work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ghent (14%, 4 mi), New York City (10%, 119 mi), Albany (8%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Chatham walkable?
Chatham is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Chatham 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 Chatham, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chatham
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.