Photo: Shuvaev · CC BY-SA 4.0A job hub: Gratz has 3.5 jobs per working resident, and 859 people come in to work
Commuters spend 22 minutes getting to work on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. Gratz has 882 jobs for 250 working residents. About one in ten stay in Gratz for work; outside it, Washington Township is the main destination (10%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Gratz stands out on work
Gratz has far more jobs than workers
Gratz has 882 jobs, 3.5 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 1,400 people are in town, 84% more than the 750 who live here. Day and night ↓
Gratz makes and builds things
91% of the jobs based in Gratz are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Gratz residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 38%. The jobs ↓
Gratz has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Gratz went from 519 in 2013 to 882 in 2023, +70%. 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 250 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Gratz on a workday afternoon
On a workday 227 residents head out to work and 23 work right here.
About 1,400 people are in Gratz on a workday afternoon, 84% more 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.
91% of the jobs in Gratz make or build things
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gratz, 2013 → 2023: 519 → 882. 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 Gratz’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where the people who work in Gratz live
Where Gratz clocks in
10% 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.
From Gratz, about 22 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gratz workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 235 commuters (the 10% 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.
The distance from Gratz to work
About 18% 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 Gratz: questions
What is the poverty rate in Gratz?
25.0%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gratz?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gratz work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Washington Township (10%, 6 mi), Lykens Township (5%, 1 mi), Harrisburg (4%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Gratz without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gratz, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gratz
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.