Phoenix has 0.5 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Phoenix has 582 jobs for 1,077 working residents. For jobs and income Phoenix is better than 34% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (B+). Measured by household income, Phoenix is behind 75% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Phoenix at work: what stands out
Inside Phoenix’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Phoenix’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (16.1%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (5.7%) is left out: Phoenix’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, Phoenix could be anywhere from C− to B.
Each way, about 21 minutes from Phoenix
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Phoenix workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 743 commuters (the 13% 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.
Phoenix on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,012 residents head out to work, 65 work right here, and 517 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,700 people are in Phoenix on a workday afternoon, 23% 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.
19% of working residents work in Syracuse
Where Phoenix clocks in
19% 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.
Most jobs in Phoenix are in services
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Phoenix, 2013 → 2023: 181 → 582. 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 Phoenix’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Phoenix, by distance
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.
Few in Phoenix walk, bike or ride to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 32.9% across New York.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 857 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 100% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 53% 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). 21.8% of Phoenix households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Phoenix’s commuters take a bus or train.
Phoenix next to U.S. towns of 1,500 to 3,000: 3,324th of 5,641 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Atlantic Beach NY | 1,723 | $166K | 1.8% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| 8 | Village of the Branch NY | 1,764 | $174K | 1.5% | 3.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 9 | Old Brookville NY | 2,098 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,322 | Maple Grove Township MI | 1,635 | $85K | 12.2% | 5.5% | 1% | C |
| 3,323 | Stanton NE | 1,506 | $77K | 10.7% | 2.4% | 7% | C |
| 3,324 | Phoenix NY | 2,192 | $59K | 16.1% | 5.7% | 6% | C |
| 3,325 | Herzog Township KS | 1,644 | $78K | 10.6% | 3.9% | 10% | C |
| 3,326 | Forest Home Township MI | 1,764 | $81K | 8.7% | 5.8% | 4% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,641 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Phoenix, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Work next door: 13% of Phoenix’s workers
The biggest share goes to Schroeppel (8%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Phoenix workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix | – | C | B+ | 21 min | $59,327 |
| Lysander | 5% | A− | C+ | 24 min | $107,984 |
| Schroeppel | 8% | C+ | B | 23 min | $73,082 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Phoenix’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 Phoenix: questions
What is the median household income in Phoenix?
$59,327 (±$16,510) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Phoenix?
16.1%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Phoenix?
21 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Phoenix work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Syracuse (19%, 15 mi), Clay (9%, 6 mi), Schroeppel (8%, 2 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Phoenix walkable?
Phoenix is more walkable than 68% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 12.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Phoenix without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 22% of households have no car. 100% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Phoenix, from the people who make the trip.
More of Phoenix
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.