Photo: VitaleBaby at en.wikipedia · Public domainSpeers draws 1,196 commuters a day, with 3.0 jobs for every working resident
Jobs and income earn Speers B−; getting around on foot earns it B−. 1,223 jobs are based in Speers, against 406 working residents. Only 7% work in Speers; the top destination outside it is Charleroi (7%, 2 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Speers at work: what stands out
Speers has far more jobs than workers
Speers has 1,223 jobs, 3.0 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 1,900 people are in town, 78% more than the 1,000 who live here. Day and night ↓
Speers has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Speers went from 748 in 2013 to 1,223 in 2023, +64%. The jobs ↓
Speers makes and builds things
44% of the jobs based in Speers are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Speers residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 22%. The jobs ↓
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 406 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Speers
On income, poverty and job access, Speers is better than 52% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Speers’ grade up (ahead of 67% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (11.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (3.0%) is left out: Speers’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, Speers could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
A workday in Speers: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 379 residents head out to work and 27 work right here.
About 1,900 people are in Speers on a workday afternoon, 78% more 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.
Goods, not services: 44% of the jobs in Speers
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Speers, 2013 → 2023: 748 → 1,223. 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 Speers’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who travels to work in Speers, and from where
Where Speers clocks in
7% of workers
6% of workers
5% 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.
From Speers, about 30 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Speers workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 411 commuters (the 10% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Speers
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.
Speers is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Speers is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Speers 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 459 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). 2.5% of Speers households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Speers’ commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Speers is 954th among 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Rose Valley PA | 1,017 | $247K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 952 | Brush Creek Township OH | 1,065 | $75K | 0.8% | 3.7% | 1% | B− |
| 953 | Choudrant LA | 1,032 | $73K | 8.1% | 0.5% | 5% | B− |
| 954 | Speers PA | 1,047 | $73K | 11.6% | 3.0% | 7% | B− |
| 955 | Lee Township MI | 1,057 | $85K | 11.1% | 9.2% | 1% | B− |
| 956 | Thurston NY | 1,228 | $73K | 3.4% | 3.6% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Speers, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
12% of Speers works in a town next door
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Speers workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speers | – | B− | B− | 30 min | $72,813 |
| Twilight | under 2% | — | — | 29 min | — |
| Long Branch | under 2% | — | — | 30 min | — |
| Rostraver Township | 5% | B− | C+ | 29 min | $73,300 |
| Charleroi | 7% | D | A | 25 min | $43,265 |
| Dunlevy | under 2% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Twilight, Long Branch and Dunlevy: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Charleroi. Darker towns draw more of Speers’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 Speers: questions
What is the median household income in Speers?
$72,813 (±$10,262) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Speers?
11.6%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Speers?
30 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Speers work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charleroi (7%, 2 mi), Pittsburgh (6%, 22 mi), Rostraver Township (5%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Speers walkable?
Speers is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Speers without a car?
1% 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 Speers, from the people who make the trip.
More of Speers
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.