Bridge 15 · Photo: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 3.0Most of Sharon commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
Sharon has 235 jobs, against 521 working residents. For jobs and income Sharon is better than 65% of U.S. towns (B+); for walkability it is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (B). Only 4% work in Sharon itself; outside it, Lebanon draws the most (14%, 14 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Sharon and work: the main findings
The four measures behind Sharon’s grade
The poverty rate holds Sharon’s grade up (3.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 25% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Sharon’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, Sharon could be anywhere from B− to A−.
The towns that employ Sharon’s residents
Where Sharon clocks in
14% of workers
12% of workers
11% 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.
Sharon quiets down on a workday
On a workday 499 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 213 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Sharon on a workday afternoon, 19% 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.
What Sharon’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sharon, 2013 → 2023: 261 → 235. 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 Sharon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 26 minutes each way, longer than most of Vermont
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sharon workers work from home, vs 17% across Vermont. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 703 commuters (the 13% who work from home are left out). Across Vermont: 82% 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.
How far Sharon’s workers travel
About 15% 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.
Few in Sharon walk, bike or ride to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 7.2% across Vermont.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 805 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 1.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 62% 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). 1.4% of Sharon households have no vehicle (Vermont 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sharon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Sharon places 1,322nd of 5,794 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 629 | South Hero VT | 1,726 | $127K | 3.5% | 5.9% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 691 | Dummerston VT | 1,859 | $102K | 4.5% | 1.6% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 710 | Bolton VT | 1,277 | $111K | 2.9% | 1.1% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,320 | Mexico NY | 1,553 | $73K | 8.1% | 0.9% | 7% | B+ |
| 1,321 | Flat Rock Township IN | 1,641 | $89K | 7.3% | 0.6% | 1% | B+ |
| 1,322 | Sharon VT | 1,542 | $84K | 3.0% | 2.9% | 4% | B+ |
| 1,323 | Kaaawa HI | 1,328 | $132K | 11.0% | 0.9% | 0% | B+ |
| 1,324 | Dudley Township IN | 1,108 | $84K | 4.5% | 0.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Sharon, the top three, the last and three more from Vermont.
Next door to Sharon
The biggest share goes to Royalton (6%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sharon workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sharon | – | B+ | B | 26 min | $84,375 |
| Pomfret | 3% | — | — | 24 min | — |
| Strafford | under 3% | B | C | 23 min | $110,833 |
| Royalton | 6% | B | A− | 20 min | $103,938 |
| Norwich | under 3% | A− | A− | 19 min | $140,313 |
Same-state neighbors only. Pomfret: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Sharon’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 Sharon: questions
What is the median household income in Sharon?
$84,375 (±$16,539) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $81,203 across Vermont and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sharon?
3.0%, against 10.1% across Vermont and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sharon?
26 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Vermont and 26 nationally. 13% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sharon work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lebanon (14%, 14 mi), Hartford (12%, 9 mi), Woodstock (11%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sharon walkable?
Sharon is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 11.3 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sharon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sharon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sharon
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.