Photo: . The original uploader was Bowie60 at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0Tower City has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
144 jobs are based in Tower City, and 611 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Tower City C; getting around on foot earns it A. Working from home is the commute for 8% of workers; Pennsylvania has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Tower City: the figures worth knowing
Tower City is a place people come home to
There are 144 jobs based in Tower City, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Tower City has about 970 people in it, 33% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Tower City workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 31 minutes each way, against 26 across Pennsylvania. Over a year that’s about 238 hours of commuting, 38 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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; with 611 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Tower City earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Tower City is better than 25% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Tower City’s grade.
Unemployment (5.4%) is left out: Tower City’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Tower City could be anywhere from D to B−.
Who leaves Tower City for work, and who comes in
On a workday 592 residents head out to work, 19 work right here, and 125 people come in from elsewhere.
About 970 people are in Tower City on a workday afternoon, 33% 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 2024, primary jobs.
How long Tower City spends getting to work: about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tower City workers work from home, vs 16% across Pennsylvania. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 654 commuters (the 8% 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.
6% of working residents work in Porter Township
Where Tower City clocks in
4% of workers
3% 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.
The kinds of work in Tower City
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tower City, 2014 → 2024: 112 → 144. 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 Tower City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Tower City, by distance
About 25% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Tower City
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Tower City is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Tower City 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 710 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). 2.8% of Tower City households have no vehicle (Pennsylvania 10.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Tower City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Tower City comes 3,691st 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 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Bryn Athyn PA | 1,304 | $143K | 0.3% | 2.6% | 17% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Rose Valley PA | 1,017 | $247K | 2.9% | 1.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 34 | Bradford Woods PA | 1,126 | $153K | 1.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,689 | Springville WI | 1,305 | $63K | 9.7% | 3.2% | 2% | C |
| 3,690 | Fifth Street TX | 1,453 | $29K | 49.3% | 0.0% | <1% | C |
| 3,691 | Tower City PA | 1,434 | $68K | 13.7% | 5.4% | 3% | C |
| 3,692 | Deadwood SD | 1,360 | $40K | 6.7% | 5.4% | 43% | C |
| 3,693 | Neligh NE | 1,551 | $59K | 7.4% | 2.1% | 41% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Tower City, the top three, the last and three more from Pennsylvania.
Tower City and its neighbors
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Tower City workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tower City | – | C | A | 31 min | $68,482 |
| Reinerton | under 3% | — | — | 27 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Reinerton: 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 Tower City’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.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Tower City: questions
What is the median household income in Tower City?
$68,482 (±$3,995) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,971 across Pennsylvania and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tower City?
13.7%, against 11.7% across Pennsylvania and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tower City?
31 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Pennsylvania and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tower City work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Porter Township (6%, 2 mi), Tremont Township (4%, 6 mi), Union Township (3%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Tower City walkable?
Tower City is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 11.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Tower City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tower City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tower City
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.