Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.6 jobs for every working resident, most of Old Forge works elsewhere
About one in ten work in Old Forge itself; outside it, Scranton draws the most (20%, 4 miles). There are 1,973 jobs in Old Forge for 3,528 working residents. The two grades for Old Forge are B for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Old Forge, in brief
Old Forge and Scranton trade workers both ways
Scranton is the top workplace for Old Forge residents (20%) and also where the most people who work in Old Forge come from (15% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Old Forge residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Old Forge makes and builds things
36% of the jobs based in Old Forge are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Old Forge residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 15%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Old Forge are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 26 across Pennsylvania. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Pennsylvania worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
How Old Forge earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Old Forge is better than 56% of U.S. towns, #632 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Job access by car holds Old Forge’s grade up (ahead of 73% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (5.5%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Old Forge could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
The places Old Forge commutes to
Where Old Forge clocks in
20% 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.
How far Old Forge’s workers travel
About 20% 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.
Goods, not services: 36% of the jobs in Old Forge
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Old Forge, 2013 → 2023: 1,886 → 1,973. 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 Old Forge’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Old Forge, about 21 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Old Forge workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,832 commuters (the 9% 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.
Who works in Old Forge, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 3,157 residents head out to work, 371 work right here, and 1,602 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,100 people are in Old Forge 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.
In Old Forge, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Old Forge is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns, #526 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.6% across Pennsylvania.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,216 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). 7.7% of Old Forge households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Old Forge’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Old Forge is 1,584th of 2,980 U.S. towns of 6,000 to 11,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | West Vincent Township PA | 6,885 | $203K | 1.4% | 0.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Bethel Township PA | 9,774 | $177K | 1.8% | 2.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Upper Nazareth Township PA | 8,521 | $122K | 1.2% | 0.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,582 | Middleburg FL | 11,644 | $75K | 8.0% | 3.0% | 4% | B |
| 1,583 | Waimanalo HI | 6,054 | $117K | 14.9% | 5.1% | <1% | B |
| 1,584 | Old Forge PA | 8,640 | $72K | 7.4% | 5.5% | 11% | B |
| 1,585 | Stonelick Township OH | 6,067 | $71K | 15.4% | 2.7% | 4% | B |
| 1,586 | Stickney IL | 6,897 | $67K | 12.3% | 4.9% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,980 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Old Forge, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Old Forge and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Moosic (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Old Forge workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old Forge | – | B | B | 21 min | $71,812 |
| Moosic | 6% | A− | A− | 15 min | $80,187 |
| Ransom Township | under 2% | C− | D | 32 min | $59,886 |
| Taylor | 2% | B− | B | 22 min | $71,599 |
| Duryea | under 2% | B− | C+ | 26 min | $62,462 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Old Forge’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 Old Forge: questions
What is the median household income in Old Forge?
$71,812 (±$4,483) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Old Forge?
7.4%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Old Forge?
21 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Old Forge work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Scranton (20%, 4 mi), Moosic (6%, 2 mi), Dunmore (4%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Old Forge walkable?
Old Forge is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Old Forge without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Old Forge, from the people who make the trip.
More of Old Forge
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.