Photo: Mwanner · CC BY-SA 3.0Fine has lower household incomes than 74% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Fine; the top destination outside it is Canton (6%, 30 miles). Below the poverty line: 20.2% of residents, where New York as a whole has 14.0%. For jobs and income Fine is better than 5% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Fine apart
Jobs & income in Fine: the grade in detail
Household income holds Fine’s grade up ($59,861, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (5.8%) is left out: Fine’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, Fine could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Time on the road from Fine: 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 Fine workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 366 commuters (the 14% 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 leaves Fine for work, and who comes in
On a workday 278 residents head out to work, 99 work right here, and 177 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.
0.73 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where Fine goes to work
Where Fine clocks in
6% of workers
5% 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 Fine: what the 276 are
276 jobs are based in Fine.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fine, 2013 → 2023: 94 → 276. 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 Fine’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Fine, by distance
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.
Most trips from Fine start in a car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 4.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 424 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). 6.8% of Fine households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fine’s commuters take a bus or train.
Fine places 4,376th of 4,866 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 4 | Saddle Rock NY | 1,008 | $176K | 0.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,374 | Cass Township MO | 1,146 | $37K | 13.0% | 0.0% | 3% | D |
| 4,375 | Cherry Creek NY | 1,034 | $57K | 27.2% | 10.0% | 7% | D |
| 4,376 | Fine NY | 1,263 | $60K | 20.2% | 5.8% | 26% | D |
| 4,377 | Green Township OH | 1,673 | $42K | 21.3% | 2.3% | 10% | D |
| 4,378 | Arenas Valley NM | 1,247 | $44K | 16.1% | 7.7% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 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 Fine, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Work in the towns next to Fine
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Fine workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fine | – | D | B− | 23 min | $59,861 |
| Clifton | 5% | — | — | 34 min | — |
| Pitcairn | under 3% | — | — | 35 min | — |
| Edwards | under 3% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Webb | under 3% | B+ | C | 30 min | $107,641 |
| Diana | under 3% | D | C | 33 min | $58,929 |
| Russell | under 3% | D | D− | 34 min | $65,189 |
Same-state neighbors only. Clifton and Pitcairn: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Edwards: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Clifton. Darker towns draw more of Fine’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Fine: questions
What is the median household income in Fine?
$59,861 (±$8,727) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fine?
20.2%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fine?
23 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 14% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fine work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Canton (6%, 30 mi), Clifton (5%, 10 mi), Potsdam (4%, 36 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fine walkable?
Fine is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.3 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fine without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fine, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fine
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.