Photo: Don O'Brien from Piketon, Ohio, United States · CC BY 2.0At 5.6%, unemployment in Vestal is higher than in 69% of U.S. towns
Working residents average 19 minutes each way, where New York has 33 and the U.S. 26. The two grades for Vestal are B− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in seven stay in Vestal for work; outside it, Binghamton is the main destination (17%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Vestal and work: the main findings
Commutes from Vestal are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 107 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
A lot of Vestal works one town over
37% of working residents work in a town that borders Vestal: Binghamton (17%), Union (16%) and Owego (4%). Next door ↓
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.
Where Vestal’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Vestal is better than 48% of U.S. towns, #424 of 758 in New York. Job access by car holds Vestal’s grade up (ahead of 64% 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, Vestal could be anywhere from C+ to B.
The daily trip from Vestal: about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Vestal workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 9,945 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.
The daily commute in and out of Vestal
On a workday 7,643 residents head out to work, 1,280 work right here, and 10,288 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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.
The towns that employ Vestal’s residents
Where Vestal clocks in
17% of workers
16% 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.
What the 11,568 jobs in Vestal are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Vestal, 2013 → 2023: 10,883 → 11,568. 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 Vestal’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Vestal works
About 28% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Vestal
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Vestal is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns, #314 of 758 in New York. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 32.9% across New York, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 11,470 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). 11.2% of Vestal households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Vestal’s commuters take a bus or train.
Vestal is 968th of 1,368 U.S. towns of 22,000 to 43,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Eastchester NY | 34,015 | $156K | 4.8% | 2.6% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Garden City NY | 23,043 | $244K | 3.0% | 3.9% | 10% | A+ |
| 52 | Clifton Park NY | 37,775 | $133K | 2.3% | 2.0% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 966 | Imperial Beach CA | 25,206 | $86K | 14.8% | 7.1% | 5% | B− |
| 967 | Harlem Township IL | 39,287 | $78K | 11.0% | 6.5% | 10% | B− |
| 968 | Vestal NY | 32,055 | $83K | 11.8% | 5.6% | 14% | B− |
| 969 | West Rancho Dominguez CA | 23,300 | $87K | 15.0% | 11.4% | 4% | B− |
| 970 | San Pablo CA | 31,678 | $79K | 12.6% | 8.5% | 5% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,368 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Vestal, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
Next door is work for 37% of Vestal
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Vestal workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vestal | – | B− | A− | 19 min | $83,012 |
| Union | 16% | C | A− | 18 min | $61,713 |
| Binghamton | under 2% | B | C− | 18 min | $105,345 |
| Johnson City | under 2% | C− | A | 17 min | $56,283 |
| Endwell | under 2% | — | — | 16 min | — |
| Owego | 4% | B− | B | 20 min | $86,263 |
| Endicott | under 2% | C− | A | 20 min | $47,290 |
| Binghamton | 17% | D | A | 19 min | $45,578 |
Same-state neighbors only. Endwell: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Binghamton. Darker towns draw more of Vestal’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 Vestal: questions
What is the median household income in Vestal?
$83,012 (±$7,679) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Vestal?
11.8%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Vestal?
19 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 Vestal work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Binghamton (17%, 7 mi), Union (16%, 5 mi), Dickinson (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Vestal walkable?
Vestal is more walkable than 76% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Vestal without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Vestal, from the people who make the trip.
More of Vestal
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.