Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0Root has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Jobs and income earn Root C+; getting around on foot earns it C+. Root has 133 jobs; 721 of its residents have a job. Only 2% stay in Root for work; outside it, Mohawk is the main destination (9%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Root and work: the main findings
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Root
On income, poverty and job access, Root is better than 44% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Root’s grade up (6.5%, 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 (1.6%) is left out: Root’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, Root could be anywhere from C to B.
In and out of Root on a workday
On a workday 705 residents head out to work, 16 work right here, and 117 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Root on a workday afternoon, 29% 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.
Where Root goes to work
Where Root clocks in
8% 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 jobs make up 68% of work in Root
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Root, 2013 → 2023: 163 → 133. 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 Root’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Root: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Root workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 752 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.
Where in the region Root works
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.
Driving is how Root gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Root is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 3.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 862 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). 11.1% of Root households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Root’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,608th of 5,509: where Root ranks among U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Atlantic Beach NY | 1,723 | $166K | 1.8% | 3.1% | 3% | A+ |
| 9 | Village of the Branch NY | 1,764 | $174K | 1.5% | 3.1% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,606 | Grand Forks AFB ND | 1,987 | $73K | 4.0% | 3.9% | 11% | C+ |
| 2,607 | Mount Vernon ME | 1,843 | $74K | 4.8% | 2.6% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,608 | Root NY | 2,002 | $76K | 6.5% | 1.6% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,609 | Dorset VT | 2,113 | $111K | 11.2% | 4.3% | 17% | C+ |
| 2,610 | Foley MN | 2,650 | $59K | 14.3% | 2.6% | 19% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | 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 Root, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
17% of Root works in a town next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Root workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Root | – | C+ | C+ | 29 min | $75,771 |
| Mohawk | 9% | B+ | C+ | 20 min | $81,473 |
| Canajoharie | under 3% | B | B− | 25 min | $78,281 |
| Palatine | under 3% | C+ | C− | 25 min | $69,722 |
| Charleston | under 3% | B | C | 34 min | $91,417 |
| Glen | 8% | B | B− | 32 min | $83,750 |
| Carlisle | under 3% | C+ | C− | 31 min | $86,971 |
| Sharon | under 3% | C− | C+ | 30 min | $68,095 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Mohawk. Darker towns draw more of Root’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 Root: questions
What is the median household income in Root?
$75,771 (±$5,586) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Root?
6.5%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Root?
29 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 Root work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mohawk (9%, 9 mi), Amsterdam (8%, 16 mi), Glen (8%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Root walkable?
Root is more walkable than 38% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 3.3 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Root without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Root, from the people who make the trip.
More of Root
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.