Photo: Canadian2006 · CC BY-SA 3.0Slippery Rock is a college town: 41% of residents are students
About one in ten work in Slippery Rock; the top destination outside it is Pittsburgh (16%, 44 miles). Jobs and income earn Slippery Rock C+; getting around on foot earns it A. A typical one-way commute lasts 28 minutes (Pennsylvania 26, U.S. 26).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Slippery Rock apart on work
Fewer jobs are based in Slippery Rock than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Slippery Rock fell from 1,962 in 2014 to 800 in 2024, −59%. 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 ↓
Slippery Rock’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Slippery Rock is Pittsburgh, 44 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (175) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Many jobs in Slippery Rock pay little
33% of the jobs based in Slippery Rock pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 36% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Slippery Rock
60% of Slippery Rock residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 37% of the jobs based in Slippery Rock pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 92% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
The four measures behind Slippery Rock’s grade
Job access by car holds Slippery Rock’s grade up (ahead of 51% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (13.5%, U.S. 11.9%).
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (32% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 13.5%, against 33.8% for all residents. Unemployment (5.6%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($89,500), since student households pull the household median down ($52,262).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Slippery Rock could be anywhere from D to A.
Slippery Rock is a services town
800 jobs are based in Slippery Rock.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Slippery Rock, 2014 → 2024: 1,962 → 800. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Slippery Rock’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Slippery Rock
About 16% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Who leaves Slippery Rock for work, and who comes in
On a workday 996 residents head out to work, 90 work right here, and 710 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
0.74 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where Slippery Rock goes to work
Where Slippery Rock clocks in
16% 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.
Getting to work from Slippery Rock takes about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Slippery Rock workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,183 commuters (the 13% 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.
In Slippery Rock, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Slippery Rock is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns, #117 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Both inputs place Slippery Rock near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,359 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). 5.5% of Slippery Rock households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Slippery Rock’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 2,500 to 4,800, Slippery Rock ranks 2,626th of 4,355 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Wallace Township PA | 3,759 | $183K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 26 | Edgmont Township PA | 4,706 | $137K | 2.4% | 1.1% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Pocopson Township PA | 4,480 | $230K | 1.3% | 2.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,624 | Merrimac VA | 2,733 | $54K | 12.6% | 3.2% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,625 | Cresco IA | 3,925 | $61K | 13.4% | 1.2% | 44% | C+ |
| 2,626 | Slippery Rock PA | 3,551 | $52K | 33.8% | 5.6% | 8% | C+ |
| 2,627 | Schuyler NY | 3,263 | $65K | 7.8% | 6.2% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,628 | Clay Center KS | 4,061 | $63K | 13.1% | 1.1% | 46% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,355 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Slippery Rock, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Around Slippery Rock: the bordering towns
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Slippery Rock workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slippery Rock | – | C+ | A | 28 min | $52,262 |
| Slippery Rock University | under 2% | — | — | 15 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Slippery Rock University: 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 Slippery Rock’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 2024, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Students. 41% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Slippery Rock: questions
What is the median household income in Slippery Rock?
$52,262 (±$15,115) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Slippery Rock?
33.8% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 13.5%. Pennsylvania: 11.7%.
How long is the commute from Slippery Rock?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Slippery Rock work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pittsburgh (16%, 44 mi), Slippery Rock Township (5%, 1 mi), Butler (4%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Slippery Rock walkable?
Slippery Rock is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.9 out of 20, and 18% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Slippery Rock without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Slippery Rock, from the people who make the trip.
More of Slippery Rock
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.