Photo: FelixRo · CC BY 3.0Long Beach has 2.1 jobs for every working resident: 1,084 people commute in to work
Jobs & income D: better than 10% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability A+: among the most walkable U.S. towns.
Household incomes here are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns. Working residents average 20 minutes each way (Washington 27, U.S. 26). About one in four work in Long Beach; the top destination outside it is Ilwaco (8%, 4 miles).
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 0.6 transit trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 94.7 in Seattle (EPA, 2020 schedules).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Long Beach
Long Beach is where the jobs are
Long Beach has 1,232 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
43% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Commutes from Long Beach are quick
The average trip to work takes 20 minutes, against 27 across Washington. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Washington 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; with 576 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Long Beach’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Long Beach is better than 10% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Long Beach’s grade up (13.1%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 8% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.3%) is left out: Long Beach’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, Long Beach could be anywhere from D− to C.
Long Beach fills up on a workday
On a workday 428 residents head out to work, 148 work right here, and 1,084 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,400 people are in Long Beach on a workday afternoon, 37% more than live here.
2.1 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.
Half of Long Beach commutes less than 17 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 43% 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.
About 20 minutes each way, quicker than most of Washington
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Long Beach workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 584 commuters (the 12% who work from home are left out). Across Washington: 79% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Where Long Beach’s workers come from
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Long Beach clocks in
8% of workers
5% of workers
4% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 1,232 jobs in Long Beach are
1,232 jobs are based in Long Beach. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Long Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Long Beach, 2013 → 2023: 948 → 1,232. 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.
Long Beach is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Long Beach is among the most walkable U.S. towns. Both inputs place Long Beach near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 666 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 84% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 84% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.6 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 51% 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). 7.8% of Long Beach households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Long Beach’s commuters take a bus or train.
Long Beach is 5,086th of 6,085 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Long Beach, the top three, the last and three more from Washington.
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Woodway WA | 1,316 | $205K | 2.1% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Fife Heights WA | 1,446 | $157K | 2.4% | 4.5% | 1% | A+ |
| 34 | Ames Lake WA | 1,245 | $250K | 1.1% | 3.1% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,084 | Port Allegany PA | 2,031 | $66K | 19.9% | 7.6% | 20% | D |
| 5,085 | Halls TN | 2,035 | $44K | 16.6% | 4.3% | 11% | D |
| 5,086 | Long Beach WA | 1,769 | $53K | 13.1% | 3.3% | 26% | D |
| 5,087 | Eagle River WI | 1,715 | $55K | 14.4% | 4.9% | 27% | D |
| 5,088 | Cherokee NC | 2,059 | $56K | 21.3% | 1.6% | 37% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | 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.
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 Long Beach: questions
What is the median household income in Long Beach?
$53,032 (±$15,531) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Long Beach?
13.1%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Long Beach?
20 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Long Beach work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ilwaco (8%, 4 mi), Seattle (5%, 118 mi), Astoria (4%, 17 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Long Beach walkable?
Long Beach is among the most walkable U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 16.5 out of 20, and 21% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Long Beach without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 84% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Long Beach, from the people who make the trip.
More of Long Beach
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.