South Peterboro Street Commercial Historic District · Photo: Doug Kerr from Upstate New York · CC BY-SA 2.0Lenox has higher unemployment (6.0%) than 74% of U.S. towns
8% of workers have no commute at all, next to 15% for New York as a whole. Jobs and income earn Lenox C+; getting around on foot earns it C+. About one in seven work in Lenox; the top destination outside it is Syracuse (10%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lenox: the figures worth knowing
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Lenox
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lenox is better than 43% of U.S. towns, #475 of 758 in New York. Job access by car holds Lenox’s grade up (ahead of 55% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down. It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lenox could be anywhere from C to B+.
Lenox’s commute takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lenox workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,738 commuters (the 8% 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.
Lenox by day and by night
On a workday 3,112 residents head out to work, 523 work right here, and 2,247 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,700 people are in Lenox on a workday afternoon, 10% fewer than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.76 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.
Out of Lenox to work: where people go
Where Lenox clocks in
10% of workers
9% 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.
65% of the jobs in Lenox pay over $3,333 a month
2,770 jobs are based in Lenox.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lenox, 2013 → 2023: 2,273 → 2,770. 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 Lenox’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Lenox
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.
For most of Lenox, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lenox is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns, #581 of 758 in New York. Both inputs place Lenox near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,062 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). 6.2% of Lenox households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Lenox’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lenox places 1,912th of 2,922 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 6,000 to 11,500
| # | 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Lawrence NY | 6,847 | $170K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Irvington NY | 6,533 | $173K | 1.6% | 2.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 112 | East Rockaway NY | 10,096 | $125K | 2.6% | 3.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,910 | Hampstead NC | 9,292 | $92K | 9.5% | 6.3% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,911 | Mount Pleasant IA | 8,500 | $61K | 15.7% | 1.7% | 44% | C+ |
| 1,912 | Lenox NY | 8,541 | $76K | 10.4% | 6.0% | 14% | C+ |
| 1,913 | Fort Knox KY | 8,836 | $83K | 9.0% | 15.1% | 8% | C+ |
| 1,914 | River Road OR | 8,862 | $82K | 14.5% | 7.0% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,922 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Lenox, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Work next door: 19% of Lenox’s workers
The biggest share goes to Oneida (9%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Lenox workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lenox | – | C+ | C+ | 25 min | $75,900 |
| Vienna | under 3% | C+ | C+ | 28 min | $83,244 |
| Verona | 7% | B− | C | 19 min | $83,534 |
| Oneida | 9% | C+ | A− | 19 min | $61,597 |
| Lincoln | under 3% | B+ | C− | 27 min | $96,100 |
| Sullivan | 3% | B | C | 26 min | $80,948 |
| Wampsville | under 3% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Wampsville: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Lenox’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 Lenox: questions
What is the median household income in Lenox?
$75,900 (±$8,132) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lenox?
10.4%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lenox?
25 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lenox work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Syracuse (10%, 20 mi), Oneida (9%, 5 mi), DeWitt (7%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lenox walkable?
Lenox is more walkable than 40% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lenox without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lenox, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lenox
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.