Most of Lee commutes out: there are 0.1 jobs for every working resident
Measured by household income, Lee is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns. 347 jobs are based in Lee for 2,612 working residents. Lee grades B+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Lee in brief
Commutes from Lee are quick
The average trip to work takes 22 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
Lee is a place people come home to
There are 347 jobs based in Lee, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Lee has about 3,700 people in it, 38% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Lee and Rome trade workers both ways
Rome is the top workplace for Lee residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Lee come from (14% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Lee makes and builds things
39% of the jobs based in Lee are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Lee residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 16%. 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.
Jobs & income in Lee: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lee is better than 66% of U.S. towns, #287 of 758 in New York. The poverty rate holds Lee’s grade up (5.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 38% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lee could be anywhere from C+ to A.
A commute of about 22 minutes in Lee
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lee workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,465 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.
A workday in Lee: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 2,506 residents head out to work, 106 work right here, and 241 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,700 people are in Lee on a workday afternoon, 38% 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.
27% of working residents work in Rome
Where Lee clocks in
27% of workers
9% 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.
Goods, not services: 39% of the jobs in Lee
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lee, 2013 → 2023: 439 → 347. 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 Lee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Lee to work
About 21% 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.
In Lee, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lee is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns, #700 of 758 in New York. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 3.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,853 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). 3.5% of Lee households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lee’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 4,200 to 8,100, Lee ranks 1,311th of 3,394 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Lawrence NY | 6,847 | $170K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 15 | Irvington NY | 6,533 | $173K | 1.6% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| 16 | Kings Point NY | 5,710 | $211K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,309 | Bridgeport PA | 5,758 | $83K | 18.2% | 3.1% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,310 | Moultonborough NH | 5,293 | $107K | 2.1% | 3.9% | 24% | B+ |
| 1,311 | Lee NY | 6,004 | $94K | 5.8% | 3.8% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,312 | Maplewood WA | 5,803 | $136K | 5.6% | 8.1% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,313 | Belle Isle FL | 7,688 | $105K | 11.6% | 5.5% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,394 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 4% | 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 Lee, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Next door is work for 27% of Lee
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lee workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lee | – | B+ | C− | 22 min | $94,137 |
| Annsville | under 2% | C− | D− | 29 min | $66,812 |
| Western | under 2% | B− | D | 25 min | $88,964 |
| Rome | 27% | C− | A | 18 min | $59,925 |
| Ava | under 2% | — | — | 33 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Ava: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Rome. Darker towns draw more of Lee’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 Lee: questions
What is the median household income in Lee?
$94,137 (±$6,080) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lee?
5.8%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lee?
22 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 Lee work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rome (27%, 7 mi), Utica (9%, 22 mi), Syracuse (5%, 37 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lee walkable?
Lee is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 3.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lee without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lee
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.