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Paxtang, PA Municipal Building and former theater, June 2025Photo: 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 4.0
Jobs & commute in Paxtang

With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Paxtang works elsewhere

For jobs and income Paxtang is better than 73% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns (A+). There are 366 jobs in Paxtang, against 828 working residents. Only 2% work in Paxtang itself; outside it, Harrisburg draws the most (16%, 3 miles).

Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made

What stands out · In brief

Paxtang at work: what stands out

Fewer jobs are based in Paxtang than ten years ago

Jobs counted in Paxtang fell from 2,407 in 2013 to 366 in 2023, −85%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓

Most Paxtang residents work close to home

71% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓

A lot of Paxtang works one town over

27% of working residents work in a town that borders Paxtang: Harrisburg (16%) and Swatara Township (11%). Next door ↓

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 828 working residents, small shifts move the shares.

Jobs & income grade

Why Paxtang gets the Jobs & income grade it does

Job access by car holds Paxtang’s grade up (ahead of 89% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (6.6%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.

Household income $87,083 (±$16,470) · PA $77,971 · U.S. $80,734Higher than 65% of U.S. towns
Poverty 4.1% · PA 11.7% · U.S. 12.5%Lower than 86% of U.S. towns
Unemployment 6.6% (±4.9) · PA 5.3% · U.S. 5.2%Lower than 21% of U.S. towns
Job access by car EPA, jobs within a 45-minute driveMore than 89% of U.S. towns
B−A+

A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Paxtang could be anywhere from B− to A+.

How TownRatings grades jobs & income →

★ What stands out · The jobs

The kinds of work in Paxtang

Jobs based in PaxtangJobs Paxtang residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms26%8%
Trade, transport & utilities12%24%
Services: health, schools, offices61%68%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less15%12%
$1,251–$3,333 a month27%29%
Over $3,333 a month58%58%

Who does it

29 or younger18%23%
30 to 5452%54%
55 and older30%24%
−85%

Jobs based in Paxtang, 2013 → 2023: 2,407 → 366. 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 Paxtang’s own residents hold wherever they work.

How far

How far it is to work from Paxtang

10 mi25 mi30 miHarrisburg: 16% · 2.8 miSwatara Township: 11% · 1.9 miDerry Township: 7% · 9.6 miLower Paxton Township: 7% · 4.2 miHampden Township: 6% · 7.7 miSusquehanna Township: 5% · 4.1 miLower Swatara Township: 3% · 5 miLower Allen Township: 3% · 6.1 miEast Pennsboro Township: 2% · 5.6 miHarrisburg 16%Swatara Township 11%Derry Township 7%Lower Paxton Township 7%Paxtang
PaxtangTop destinations (size = commuters)
71%Under 10 mi584 residents
11%10–24 mi95 residents
5%25–50 mi44 residents
13%Over 50 mi104 residents

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.

Day and night

The daily commute in and out of Paxtang

On a workday 813 residents head out to work, 15 work right here, and 351 people come in from elsewhere.

813live here, work elsewhere
15live and work here
351work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night1,600
Workday1,200
1,600live here− 810head out to work+ 350come in to work= 1,200on a workday

About 1,200 people are in Paxtang on a workday afternoon, 28% fewer than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.44jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

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 commute map

The places Paxtang commutes to

PaxtangSteeltonHarrisburg: 133 residents work here (16%)Middle Paxton TownshipLower Swatara Township: 25 residents work here (3%)Susquehanna Township: 45 residents work here (5%)Lower Paxton Township: 58 residents work here (7%)Derry Township: 62 residents work here (7%)Swatara Township: 92 residents work here (11%)Mount Joy TownshipLower Allen Township: 24 residents work here (3%)East Pennsboro Township: 18 residents work here (2%)Hampden Township: 51 residents work here (6%)West Hanover TownshipHarrisburgSwatara TownshipDerry TownshipLower Paxton TownshipHampden TownshipSusquehanna TownshipPaxtang
1
Harrisburg2.8 mi away
16%133
2
Swatara Township1.9 mi away
11%92
3
Derry Township9.6 mi away
7%62
47%58
5
Hampden Township7.7 mi away
6%51
65%45
83%24
92%18
10
Paxtang (in town)right here
2%15
Everywhere elseother towns and states
37%305
The top trips

Where Paxtang clocks in

Lines 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

A commute of about 22 minutes in Paxtang

A year of commuting
166 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Paxtang22 min
Pennsylvania26 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
15%

of Paxtang workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.

About 2 in 10
How Paxtang gets to work
80%Drive alone
10%Carpool
1%Transit
6%Walk
3%Other

Share of the 843 commuters (the 15% 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.

Getting around · Walkability grade

Good to walk, short on transit: Paxtang

The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 6.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.6% across Pennsylvania.

EPA walkability index 17.3 of 20 · typical PA town 6.7 · U.S. 6.9Among the top U.S. towns
Walk, bike or transit 6.1% of commuters · PA 8.6% · U.S. 7.1%Higher than 81% of U.S. towns
A+A+

A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 993 workers.

How TownRatings grades walkability →

Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 100% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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

Philadelphia37.7
Paxtang0.0

Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.9% of Paxtang households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Paxtang’s commuters take a bus or train.

Towns its size

Out of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200, Paxtang comes 1,008th on jobs and income

#TownPeopleHousehold incomePovertyUnemploymentWork in townGrade
1Somerset MD1,151$250K1.9%2.3%<1%A+
2Chevy Chase Village MD1,978$250K1.2%2.6%3%A+
3Bellerose NY1,169$232K1.6%6.1%1%A+
…
13Bryn Athyn PA1,304$143K0.3%2.6%16%A+
…
32Bradford Woods PA1,126$153K1.9%1.4%2%A+
…
42Edgeworth PA1,611$203K3.0%3.9%4%A+
…
1,006Hudson Lake IN1,347$98K7.2%0.0%<1%B+
1,007Pecatonica IL2,052$73K7.0%1.6%9%B+
1,008Paxtang PA1,632$87K4.1%6.6%2%B+
1,009Taylor Township IN1,123$109K1.8%2.9%1%B+
1,010Garrett WA1,697$119K6.4%5.9%1%B+
…
6,161Paraje NM1,333$33K61.7%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 Paxtang, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.

Next door

27% of Paxtang works in a town next door

10%+5–9%2–4%1%Under 1%

Average commute minutes, one way

Swatara Township20 min
Harrisburg20 min
Paxtang22 min

Jobs & commute next door

TownPaxtang workers thereJobs & incomeWalkabilityCommuteHousehold income
Paxtang–B+A+22 min$87,083
Swatara Township11%B+B20 min$80,444
Harrisburg16%C−A+20 min$48,099

Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.

The biggest share goes to Harrisburg. Darker towns draw more of Paxtang’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.

How to read these numbers

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.

How these figures and grades are made →

Jobs and commuting in Paxtang: questions

What is the median household income in Paxtang?

$87,083 (±$16,470) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.

What is the poverty rate in Paxtang?

4.1%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).

How long is the commute from Paxtang?

22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.

Where do people who live in Paxtang work?

2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Harrisburg (16%, 3 mi), Swatara Township (11%, 2 mi), Derry Township (7%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).

Is Paxtang walkable?

Paxtang is more walkable than 95% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 17.3 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.

Can you get around Paxtang without a car?

1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 100% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Paxtang, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
Ask neighbors
Beyond the commute

More of Paxtang

Paxtang home →

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.