Photo: A.Davey from Portland, Oregon, EE UU · CC BY 2.0With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Union works elsewhere
Working from home is the commute for 6% of workers, where Oregon as a whole has 19%. There are 211 jobs in Union, and 701 of its residents work somewhere. Union grades C for jobs and income and A for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Union stands out on work
Union and La Grande trade workers both ways
La Grande is the top workplace for Union residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Union come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Union is a place people come home to
There are 211 jobs based in Union, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 701 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Union earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Union is better than 30% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Union’s grade up (1.7%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 5% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Union could be anywhere from D to B−.
27% of working residents work in La Grande
Where Union clocks in
27% 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 workday shuffle in and out of Union
On a workday 645 residents head out to work, 56 work right here, and 155 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,600 people are in Union on a workday afternoon, 23% 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.
The distance from Union to work
About 30% 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.
Jobs in Union: what the 211 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Union, 2013 → 2023: 160 → 211. 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 Union’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Union: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Union workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,110 commuters (the 6% 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.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Union
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Union is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 4.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.4% across Oregon.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,185 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 99% 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 40% 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). 5.6% of Union households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Union’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Union is 3,426th among 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Dunthorpe OR | 1,875 | $250K | 1.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 202 | Boring OR | 1,869 | $159K | 3.8% | 6.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 245 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,424 | Jean Lafitte LA | 1,858 | $64K | 13.1% | 16.1% | 7% | C |
| 3,425 | Glenwood MN | 2,631 | $42K | 18.4% | 0.0% | 37% | C |
| 3,426 | Union OR | 2,118 | $65K | 18.9% | 1.7% | 8% | C |
| 3,427 | Searsport ME | 2,737 | $64K | 14.6% | 3.2% | 12% | C |
| 3,428 | Alstead NH | 1,928 | $65K | 8.9% | 3.0% | 3% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | 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 Union, the top three, the last and three more from Oregon.
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 Union: questions
What is the median household income in Union?
$65,047 (±$9,086) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Union?
18.9%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Union?
22 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Union work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are La Grande (27%, 13 mi), Baker City (5%, 30 mi), Portland (4%, 233 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Union walkable?
Union is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 12.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Union without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Union, from the people who make the trip.
More of Union
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.