Oakland has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.5 for each
Home is the office for 2% of workers, against 12% across South Carolina. Oakland has 180 jobs, against 364 working residents. The two grades for Oakland are C for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Oakland
Oakland and Sumter trade workers both ways
Sumter is the top workplace for Oakland residents (25%) and also where the most people who work in Oakland come from (14% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Few Oakland workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 12% across South Carolina. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
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 364 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Oakland
On income, poverty and job access, Oakland is better than 28% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Oakland’s grade up (ahead of 53% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (22.8%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (6.7%) is left out: Oakland’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, Oakland could be anywhere from D to B.
25% of working residents work in Sumter
Where Oakland clocks in
25% of workers
9% of workers
2% 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 Oakland, about 26 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oakland workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 385 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across South Carolina: 86% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who works in Oakland, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 361 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 177 people come in from elsewhere.
About 880 people are in Oakland on a workday afternoon, 17% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oakland, 2013 → 2023: 35 → 180. 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 Oakland’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Miles to work from Oakland
About 21% 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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
For most of Oakland, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Oakland is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.4% across South Carolina.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 395 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% 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). 20.2% of Oakland households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Oakland’s commuters take a bus or train.
Oakland is 1,828th of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400 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% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 872 | Edisto Beach SC | 1,071 | $86K | 2.5% | 5.8% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 920 | Murphys Estates SC | 1,064 | $90K | 14.6% | 0.0% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 927 | Warrenville SC | 1,042 | $53K | 6.0% | 4.1% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,826 | Eagle Township OH | 1,353 | $90K | 19.3% | 6.5% | 3% | C |
| 1,827 | Conyngham Township PA | 1,336 | $60K | 12.6% | 3.0% | <1% | C |
| 1,828 | Oakland SC | 1,060 | $69K | 22.8% | 6.7% | 1% | C |
| 1,829 | Cavalier ND | 1,218 | $60K | 6.2% | 8.7% | 34% | C |
| 1,830 | Ashley OH | 1,343 | $57K | 20.1% | 4.8% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Oakland, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
25% of Oakland works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Sumter. Darker towns draw more of Oakland’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 Oakland: questions
What is the median household income in Oakland?
$68,778 (±$14,365) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Oakland?
22.8%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Oakland?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Oakland work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sumter (25%, 7 mi), Columbia (9%, 23 mi), Camden (2%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Oakland walkable?
Oakland is more walkable than 9% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Oakland without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 20% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Oakland, from the people who make the trip.
More of Oakland
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.