Photo: Finetooth · CC BY-SA 3.0Gates has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Hardly any stay in Gates for work; outside it, Salem is the main destination (20%, 32 miles). Employers in Gates report 31 jobs for 180 working residents. For 12% of workers, the job is at home, against 19% across Oregon.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who works in Gates, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 179 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 30 people come in from elsewhere.
About 330 people are in Gates on a workday afternoon, 31% 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 people from Gates work
Where Gates clocks in
20% of workers
6% 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 kinds of work in Gates
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gates, 2013 → 2023: 15 → 31. 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 Gates’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 37 minutes from Gates
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gates workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 184 commuters (the 12% who work from home are left out). Across Oregon: 80% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Miles to work from Gates
About 21% 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.
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 Gates: questions
What is the median household income in Gates?
$65,670 (±$4,766) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gates?
9.5%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gates?
37 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gates work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salem (20%, 32 mi), Stayton (6%, 19 mi), Mill City (5%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Gates without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gates, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gates
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.