Bates Cobblestone Farmhouse · Photo: Araucana · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Middlesex works elsewhere
165 jobs are based in Middlesex for 463 working residents. Middlesex grades B− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Only 5% work in Middlesex itself; outside it, Canandaigua draws the most (9%, 12 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Middlesex stands out on work
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Middlesex
On income, poverty and job access, Middlesex is better than 46% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Middlesex’s grade up (5.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 15% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.2%) is left out: Middlesex’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, Middlesex could be anywhere from C− to B+.
About 25 minutes to work from Middlesex
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Middlesex workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 551 commuters (the 18% 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.
Middlesex on a workday afternoon
On a workday 438 residents head out to work, 25 work right here, and 140 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Middlesex on a workday afternoon, 22% 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.
The places Middlesex commutes to
Where Middlesex clocks in
9% of workers
6% 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 Middlesex’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Middlesex, 2013 → 2023: 199 → 165. 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 Middlesex’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Middlesex
About 18% 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 Middlesex, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Middlesex is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 5.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 674 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). 8.0% of Middlesex households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Middlesex’s commuters take a bus or train.
Middlesex next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800: 2,093rd of 5,400 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,091 | Wayne Township IN | 1,729 | $64K | 11.4% | 1.2% | 2% | B− |
| 2,092 | Perch Lake Township MN | 1,042 | $90K | 11.9% | 6.8% | 1% | B− |
| 2,093 | Middlesex NY | 1,349 | $76K | 5.8% | 2.2% | 5% | B− |
| 2,094 | Georgetown WI | 1,034 | $77K | 5.1% | 7.2% | 1% | B− |
| 2,095 | Sandy Valley NV | 1,742 | $58K | 5.8% | 13.2% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Middlesex, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Work next door: 12% of Middlesex’s workers
The biggest share goes to Gorham (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Middlesex workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middlesex | – | B− | C+ | 25 min | $75,750 |
| South Bristol | under 3% | B | C+ | 29 min | $97,148 |
| Potter | under 3% | C | B− | 25 min | $67,344 |
| Gorham | 6% | C+ | C | 21 min | $64,874 |
| Canandaigua | 6% | — | — | 25 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Canandaigua: the same community as the city of that name, graded once. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Middlesex’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 Middlesex: questions
What is the median household income in Middlesex?
$75,750 (±$21,233) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Middlesex?
5.8%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Middlesex?
25 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 18% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Middlesex work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Canandaigua (9%, 12 mi), Milo (7%, 16 mi), Canandaigua (6%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Middlesex walkable?
Middlesex is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 5.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Middlesex 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 Middlesex, from the people who make the trip.
More of Middlesex
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.