Sidney has higher unemployment (9.6%) than 93% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Sidney is behind 88% of U.S. towns. Jobs and income earn Sidney D; getting around on foot earns it B+. Home is the office for 6% of workers, against 15% across New York.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Sidney in brief
Sidney makes and builds things
53% of the jobs based in Sidney are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Sidney residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 25%. The jobs ↓
Sidney is where the jobs are
Sidney has 2,719 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Sidney and Sidney trade workers both ways
Sidney is the top workplace for Sidney residents (24%) and also where the most people who work in Sidney come from (16% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commutes from Sidney are quick
The average trip to work takes 25 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
Most jobs in Sidney pay over $40,000 a year
73% of the jobs based in Sidney pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), the top earnings band in the Census data. 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.
The figures behind Sidney’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Sidney’s grade up (ahead of 24% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sidney could be anywhere from D− to C+.
In Sidney, 53% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
2,719 jobs are based in Sidney.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sidney, 2013 → 2023: 2,983 → 2,719. 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 Sidney’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In and out of Sidney on a workday
On a workday 1,067 residents head out to work, 336 work right here, and 2,383 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,900 people are in Sidney on a workday afternoon, 37% more than live here.
1.9 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
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 towns that send workers to Sidney
Where Sidney clocks in
7% 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.
The trip to work from Sidney: 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 Sidney workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,612 commuters (the 6% 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.
How many miles Sidney commutes
About 35% 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.
Sidney is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sidney is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns, #390 of 758 in New York. Both inputs place Sidney 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 1,721 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). 22.8% of Sidney households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sidney’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Sidney compares with U.S. towns of 2,500 to 4,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | East Williston NY | 2,616 | $215K | 2.3% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 8 | Lloyd Harbor NY | 3,587 | $250K | 2.1% | 0.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 50 | Great Neck Estates NY | 3,139 | $238K | 5.7% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,121 | Seal Township OH | 3,389 | $41K | 25.1% | 7.1% | 11% | D |
| 4,122 | Dawson GA | 4,131 | $29K | 53.8% | 6.0% | 19% | D |
| 4,123 | Sidney NY | 3,588 | $50K | 21.0% | 9.6% | 24% | D |
| 4,124 | Walhalla SC | 4,320 | $36K | 45.9% | 6.5% | 11% | D |
| 4,125 | Newton MS | 3,040 | $32K | 29.4% | 6.6% | 23% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,355 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Sidney, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Sidney and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Bainbridge (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sidney workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sidney | – | D | B+ | 25 min | $50,208 |
| Unadilla | under 2% | C− | B | 23 min | $56,484 |
| Bainbridge | 3% | C− | C+ | 22 min | $60,391 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sidney’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 Sidney: questions
What is the median household income in Sidney?
$50,208 (±$14,459) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sidney?
21.0%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sidney?
25 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sidney work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sidney (24%, 6 mi), New York City (7%, 136 mi), Oneonta (5%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sidney walkable?
Sidney is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sidney without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 23% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sidney, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sidney
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.