Photo: TheWhitePelican · CC BY-SA 3.0Commerce’s household incomes are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
About one in ten work in Commerce itself; outside it, Miami draws the most (32%, 3 miles). Poverty touches 35.1% of residents, next to 15.3% for Oklahoma as a whole. Jobs and income earn Commerce D−; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Commerce
Commerce and Miami trade workers both ways
Miami is the top workplace for Commerce residents (32%) and also where the most people who work in Commerce come from (31% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Commerce makes and builds things
54% of the jobs based in Commerce are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Commerce residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 31%. The jobs ↓
Fewer than half of Commerce workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Commerce’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 14% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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; with 953 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Commerce’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Commerce is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Commerce’s grade up (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (3.0%) is left out: Commerce’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Commerce stays D−.
Where Commerce goes to work
Where Commerce clocks in
32% of workers
5% of workers
4% 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.
In Commerce, 54% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
631 jobs are based in Commerce.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Commerce, 2013 → 2023: 203 → 631. 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 Commerce’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Commerce
On a workday 847 residents head out to work, 106 work right here, and 525 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,900 people are in Commerce on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.66 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Commuting from Commerce: about 16 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Commerce workers work from home, vs 9% across Oklahoma. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 838 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Oklahoma: 85% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Half of Commerce commutes less than 6 miles
About 25% 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 Commerce, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Commerce is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.5% across Oklahoma.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 867 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). 7.7% of Commerce households have no vehicle (Oklahoma 5.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Commerce’s commuters take a bus or train.
Commerce next to U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,279 | Kiefer OK | 2,310 | $83K | 10.4% | 3.0% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,280 | Union City OK | 2,129 | $106K | 11.5% | 2.9% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,377 | Norwood OK | 1,752 | $89K | 8.2% | 0.0% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,155 | Whitesburg KY | 1,609 | $29K | 37.5% | 11.1% | 32% | D− |
| 5,156 | Richland MO | 1,737 | $34K | 25.9% | 3.8% | 8% | D− |
| 5,157 | Commerce OK | 2,260 | $35K | 35.1% | 3.0% | 11% | D− |
| 5,158 | Mount Union PA | 2,231 | $41K | 26.7% | 9.7% | 13% | D− |
| 5,159 | Soap Lake WA | 1,817 | $48K | 27.4% | 8.9% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | 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 Commerce, the top three, the last and three more from Oklahoma.
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 Commerce: questions
What is the median household income in Commerce?
$34,817 (±$2,769) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $65,039 across Oklahoma and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Commerce?
35.1%, against 15.3% across Oklahoma and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Commerce?
16 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Oklahoma and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Commerce work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Miami (32%, 3 mi), Tulsa (5%, 80 mi), Joplin (4%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Commerce walkable?
Commerce is more walkable than 45% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Commerce 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 Commerce, from the people who make the trip.
More of Commerce
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.