Photo: Mojo Hand · CC BY-SA 3.0A job hub: Salem has 2.0 jobs per working resident, and 17,846 people come in to work
Employers in Salem report 20,587 jobs; 10,489 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Salem is better than 56% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (A). Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 2.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 56.3 in Arlington.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Salem in brief
Salem is where the jobs are
Salem has 20,587 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Most Salem residents work close to home
71% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
A lot of Salem works one town over
34% of working residents work in a town that borders Salem: Roanoke (27%), Cave Spring (5%) and Glenvar (2%). Next door ↓
Commutes from Salem are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 27 across Virginia. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Virginia worker. 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.
The four measures behind Salem’s grade
Job access by car holds Salem’s grade up (ahead of 72% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($66,725, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on unemployment.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Salem could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
How many people are in Salem by day
On a workday 7,748 residents head out to work and 2,741 work right here.
About 36,000 people are in Salem on a workday afternoon, 39% 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.
How far it is to work from Salem
About 17% 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.
About 19 minutes to work from Salem
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Salem workers work from home, vs 18% across Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 10,846 commuters (the 11% 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.
Commuting in to Salem: where workers come from
Where Salem clocks in
27% 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 Salem
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Salem, 2013 → 2023: 23,241 → 20,587. 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 Salem’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Good to walk, short on transit: Salem
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 12,162 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 59% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 11% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 70% 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). 6.4% of Salem households have no vehicle (Virginia 6.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Salem’s commuters take a bus or train.
Salem is 968th of 1,576 U.S. towns of 18,000 to 35,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 14 | Rose Hill VA | 21,066 | $175K | 2.6% | 2.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Franconia VA | 18,335 | $152K | 2.8% | 2.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 966 | Belton MO | 26,193 | $69K | 9.7% | 4.8% | 10% | B |
| 967 | Richmond Hill GA | 20,022 | $93K | 8.8% | 5.8% | 11% | B |
| 968 | Salem VA | 25,816 | $67K | 10.2% | 3.6% | 26% | B |
| 969 | Brunswick ME | 23,055 | $75K | 7.7% | 4.6% | 25% | B |
| 970 | Seagoville TX | 21,077 | $67K | 11.8% | 4.6% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,576 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Salem, the top three, the last and three more from Virginia.
34% of Salem works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Roanoke (27%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Salem workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salem | – | B | A | 19 min | $66,725 |
| Roanoke | 27% | C | A | 19 min | $55,378 |
| Glenvar | 2% | — | — | — | — |
| Cave Spring | 5% | A− | B− | 20 min | $87,539 |
Same-state neighbors only. Glenvar: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Salem’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 Salem: questions
What is the median household income in Salem?
$66,725 (±$6,350) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $93,170 across Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Salem?
10.2%, against 9.9% across Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Salem?
19 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Virginia and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Salem work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Roanoke (27%, 5 mi), Cave Spring (5%, 5 mi), Hollins (4%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Salem walkable?
Salem is more walkable than 89% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 10.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Salem without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 11% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Salem, from the people who make the trip.
More of Salem
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.