Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Unemployment in Foster Township (9.4%) is higher than in 93% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 5% of workers, next to 16% for Pennsylvania as a whole. For jobs and income Foster Township is better than 29% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (D). Only 4% stay in Foster Township for work; outside it, Hazle Township is the main destination (17%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Foster Township: the figures worth knowing
Jobs & income in Foster Township: the grade in detail
Job access by car holds Foster Township’s grade up (ahead of 50% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Foster Township could be anywhere from D to A−.
What work there is in Foster Township: 572 jobs
572 jobs are based in Foster Township.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Foster Township, 2013 → 2023: 1,240 → 572. 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 Foster Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How a workday changes Foster Township
On a workday 1,170 residents head out to work, 52 work right here, and 520 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,900 people are in Foster Township on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.47 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.
Out of Foster Township to work: where people go
Where Foster Township clocks in
6% 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.
Time on the road from Foster Township: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Foster Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,346 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Pennsylvania: 81% drive alone, 4% 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 Foster Township commutes
About 19% 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 Foster Township, the car does most of the work
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,418 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). 6.8% of Foster Township households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Foster Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Foster Township is 3,133rd among 4,355 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Wallace Township PA | 3,759 | $183K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Edgmont Township PA | 4,706 | $137K | 2.4% | 1.1% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Pocopson Township PA | 4,480 | $230K | 1.3% | 2.2% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,131 | Slatington PA | 4,296 | $50K | 25.8% | 4.1% | 4% | C |
| 3,132 | Madison WV | 2,678 | $59K | 12.9% | 3.6% | 10% | C |
| 3,133 | Foster Township PA | 3,555 | $68K | 10.5% | 9.4% | 4% | C |
| 3,134 | Bridgeville DE | 2,997 | $65K | 13.4% | 5.8% | 7% | C |
| 3,135 | Bloomfield IA | 2,785 | $61K | 6.9% | 5.5% | 23% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Foster Township, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Work next door: 21% of Foster Township’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Foster Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foster Township | – | C | D | 30 min | $68,384 |
| Kidder Township | under 2% | B− | D | 34 min | $78,854 |
| Dennison Township | under 2% | — | — | 32 min | — |
| Lausanne Township | under 2% | — | — | 27 min | — |
| White Haven | under 2% | C | A− | 28 min | $67,656 |
| Jeddo | under 2% | — | — | 31 min | — |
| Hazle Township | 17% | C | C | 21 min | $59,134 |
| Butler Township | 4% | B+ | C | 25 min | $108,514 |
Same-state neighbors only. Dennison Township: not graded. Lausanne Township and Jeddo: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Hazle Township. Darker towns draw more of Foster Township’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 Foster Township: questions
What is the median household income in Foster Township?
$68,384 (±$18,889) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Foster Township?
10.5%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Foster Township?
30 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Foster Township work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hazle Township (17%, 9 mi), Hazleton (6%, 7 mi), West Hazleton (5%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Foster Township walkable?
Foster Township is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Foster Township without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Foster Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Foster Township
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.