Photo: Andrew Bain · CC BY-SA 3.0There are 3.0 jobs in Amherst for every working resident, and 1,914 people commute in
Employers in Amherst report 2,014 jobs, and 672 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Amherst is better than 44% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (B). About one in seven stay in Amherst for work; outside it, Lynchburg is the main destination (24%, 15 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Amherst: the gist
Amherst has far more jobs than workers
Amherst has 2,014 jobs, 3.0 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,500 people are in town, 63% more than the 2,100 who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Amherst are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 27 across Virginia. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Virginia worker. Time on the road ↓
Nearly all the work in Amherst is services
88% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 5% are in factories, building or farms. 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 672 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Amherst
All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Amherst’s grade.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Amherst’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, Amherst could be anywhere from C− to B+.
In and out of Amherst on a workday
On a workday 572 residents head out to work and 100 work right here.
About 3,500 people are in Amherst on a workday afternoon, 63% more than live here.
3.0 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Getting to work from Amherst takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Amherst workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 698 commuters (the 15% who work from home are left out). Across Virginia: 83% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Amherst is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Amherst, 2013 → 2023: 2,753 → 2,014. 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 Amherst’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Amherst’s workforce comes from
Where Amherst clocks in
3% 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.
How far Amherst’s workers travel
About 24% 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.
The commute in Amherst is mostly behind the wheel
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 818 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). 7.5% of Amherst households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Amherst’s commuters take a bus or train.
Amherst is 2,586th of 5,404 U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Sully Square VA | 2,394 | $176K | 0.8% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Oak Grove VA | 2,408 | $174K | 0.6% | 2.5% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Mason Neck VA | 2,039 | $168K | 1.1% | 2.3% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,584 | Galena KS | 2,788 | $49K | 13.0% | 1.6% | 18% | C+ |
| 2,585 | Alvord TX | 1,675 | $69K | 8.0% | 8.3% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,586 | Amherst VA | 2,146 | $71K | 9.1% | 0.0% | 15% | C+ |
| 2,587 | Newberg Township MI | 1,598 | $72K | 8.8% | 4.1% | 5% | C+ |
| 2,588 | Catlin NY | 2,450 | $81K | 8.9% | 5.0% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Amherst, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
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 Amherst: questions
What is the median household income in Amherst?
$70,841 (±$21,353) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Amherst?
9.1%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Amherst?
20 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Amherst work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lynchburg (24%, 15 mi), Madison Heights (3%, 10 mi), Roanoke (2%, 54 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Amherst walkable?
Amherst is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Amherst without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Amherst, from the people who make the trip.
More of Amherst
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.