Thomas James Store, Old · Photo: Jennifer Glass · CC BY-SA 3.0A job hub: Mathews has 2.9 jobs per working resident, and 569 people come in to work
Working from home is the commute for 1% of workers; Virginia has 18%. Employers in Mathews report 598 jobs, and 203 of its residents work somewhere. About one in seven work in Mathews; the top destination outside it is Newport News (16%, 28 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Mathews
Mathews is where the jobs are
Mathews has 598 jobs, 3.0 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 1,300 people are in town, 42% more than the 940 who live here. Day and night ↓
Mathews has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Mathews went from 304 in 2013 to 598 in 2023, +97%. The jobs ↓
Mathews’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Mathews is Newport News, 28 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (32) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
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 203 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
How a workday changes Mathews
On a workday 174 residents head out to work and 29 work right here.
About 1,300 people are in Mathews on a workday afternoon, 42% 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.
What Mathews’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mathews, 2013 → 2023: 304 → 598. 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 Mathews’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Mathews works
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.
Where Mathews’s workers come from
Where Mathews clocks in
16% of workers
4% 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.
From Mathews, about 19 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mathews workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 314 commuters (the 1% 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.
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 Mathews: questions
What is the median household income in Mathews?
$55,481 (±$19,753) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mathews?
16.1%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mathews?
19 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mathews work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Newport News (16%, 28 mi), Virginia Beach (4%, 49 mi), Hampton (4%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Mathews 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 Mathews, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mathews
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.