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 0.4 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
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.
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.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Paxtang could be anywhere from B− to A+.
The kinds of work in Paxtang
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
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 it is to work from Paxtang
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.
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.
About 1,200 people are in Paxtang on a workday afternoon, 28% 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.
The places Paxtang commutes to
Where Paxtang clocks in
16% of workers
7% 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.
A commute of about 22 minutes in Paxtang
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Paxtang workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
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.
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.
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
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.
Out of 6,161 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200, Paxtang comes 1,008th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Edgeworth PA | 1,611 | $203K | 3.0% | 3.9% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,006 | Hudson Lake IN | 1,347 | $98K | 7.2% | 0.0% | <1% | B+ |
| 1,007 | Pecatonica IL | 2,052 | $73K | 7.0% | 1.6% | 9% | B+ |
| 1,008 | Paxtang PA | 1,632 | $87K | 4.1% | 6.6% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,009 | Taylor Township IN | 1,123 | $109K | 1.8% | 2.9% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,010 | Garrett WA | 1,697 | $119K | 6.4% | 5.9% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Paxtang, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
27% of Paxtang works in a town next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Paxtang workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paxtang | – | B+ | A+ | 22 min | $87,083 |
| Swatara Township | 11% | B+ | B | 20 min | $80,444 |
| Harrisburg | 16% | 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.
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 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.
More of Paxtang
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.