Photo: Cromdog · CC BY-SA 3.0With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Metal Township works elsewhere
292 jobs are based in Metal Township, and 615 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Metal Township C+; getting around on foot earns it B−. Home is the office for 4% of workers (Pennsylvania 16%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Metal Township’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Metal Township is better than 37% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Metal Township’s grade up ($79,750, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (2.5%) is left out: Metal Township’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Metal Township could be anywhere from C− to B−.
The daily commute in and out of Metal Township
On a workday 554 residents head out to work, 61 work right here, and 231 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Metal Township on a workday afternoon, 18% 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.
11% of working residents work in Chambersburg
Where Metal Township clocks in
11% 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.
57% of the jobs in Metal Township make or build things
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Metal Township, 2013 → 2023: 152 → 292. 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 Metal Township’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Metal Township: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Metal Township workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 909 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Metal Township
About 26% 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.
Getting around Metal Township: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Metal Township is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 8.6% across Pennsylvania, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 952 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). 1.7% of Metal Township households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Metal Township’s commuters take a bus or train.
Metal Township next to U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400: 3,186th of 6,085 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | Newtown PA | 2,257 | $166K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 38 | Edgeworth PA | 1,611 | $203K | 3.0% | 3.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,184 | Green Township IN | 1,308 | $72K | 11.8% | 1.1% | <1% | C+ |
| 3,185 | Coitsville Township OH | 1,234 | $59K | 13.9% | 9.7% | 3% | C+ |
| 3,186 | Metal Township PA | 1,772 | $80K | 10.2% | 2.5% | 10% | C+ |
| 3,187 | Jefferson Township PA | 1,853 | $68K | 13.0% | 4.3% | 2% | C+ |
| 3,188 | East Union Township PA | 1,734 | $81K | 17.3% | 7.1% | 5% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | 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 Metal Township, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
How Metal Township compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Fannett Township (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Metal Township workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metal Township | – | C+ | B− | 29 min | $79,750 |
| Letterkenny Township | under 3% | B+ | C | 24 min | $82,629 |
| Todd Township | under 3% | C+ | C− | 23 min | $74,485 |
| St. Thomas Township | under 3% | C+ | C | 25 min | $73,642 |
| Dublin Township | under 3% | — | — | 32 min | — |
| Dublin Township | under 3% | C− | C− | 45 min | $68,472 |
| Peters Township | 3% | B− | C+ | 30 min | $76,829 |
| Fort Loudon | under 3% | — | — | — | — |
| Fannett Township | 6% | C | C− | 36 min | $65,653 |
Same-state neighbors only. Dublin Township: not graded. Fort Loudon: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Metal 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 Metal Township: questions
What is the median household income in Metal Township?
$79,750 (±$8,731) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Metal Township?
10.2%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Metal Township?
29 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Metal Township work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chambersburg (11%, 13 mi), Fannett Township (6%, 10 mi), Greene Township (5%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Metal Township walkable?
Metal Township is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Metal Township without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Metal Township, from the people who make the trip.
More of Metal 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.