Photo: Orange Suede Sofa · CC BY-SA 3.0More people are out of work in Sunnyside (12.3%) than in 97% of U.S. towns
Sunnyside grades D for jobs and income and B for walkability. Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers, against 20% across Washington. About one in four work in Sunnyside itself; outside it, Yakima draws the most (11%, 32 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Sunnyside
Sunnyside trades workers with the towns around it
Sunnyside has about as many jobs (6,779) as working residents (5,735), but they are mostly different people: 4,107 residents leave for work each day while 5,151 people come in. Only 24% of the jobs in Sunnyside are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Few Sunnyside workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 20% across Washington. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Sunnyside’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Sunnyside is Yakima, 32 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (614) 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.
The figures behind Sunnyside’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Sunnyside’s grade up (ahead of 36% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sunnyside could be anywhere from D to C−.
How a workday changes Sunnyside
On a workday 4,107 residents head out to work, 1,628 work right here, and 5,151 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.18 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
About 25 minutes each way, quicker than most of Washington
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sunnyside workers work from home, vs 20% across Washington. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,424 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Washington: 79% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The distance from Sunnyside to work
About 16% 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 towns that employ Sunnyside’s residents
Where Sunnyside clocks in
11% of workers
6% 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.
What work there is in Sunnyside: 6,779 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sunnyside, 2013 → 2023: 6,099 → 6,779. 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 Sunnyside’s own residents hold wherever they work.
In Sunnyside, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sunnyside is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns, #185 of 285 in Washington. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 8.9% across Washington.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,606 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, 8% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 42% 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). 9.4% of Sunnyside households have no vehicle (Washington 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sunnyside’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Sunnyside compares with U.S. towns of 12,000 to 22,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Trophy Club TX | 13,695 | $201K | 2.1% | 2.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 78 | Bothell East WA | 14,578 | $199K | 3.6% | 2.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | Snoqualmie WA | 13,640 | $214K | 0.8% | 2.6% | 8% | A+ |
| 98 | Edgewood WA | 13,548 | $116K | 4.6% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,800 | Mineral Wells TX | 15,983 | $56K | 22.4% | 6.5% | 37% | D |
| 1,801 | Fort Payne AL | 15,189 | $47K | 32.5% | 5.0% | 51% | D |
| 1,802 | Sunnyside WA | 16,430 | $61K | 18.5% | 12.3% | 28% | D |
| 1,803 | Smithfield NC | 13,114 | $43K | 27.3% | 7.2% | 17% | D |
| 1,804 | Tahlequah OK | 17,508 | $50K | 18.4% | 6.3% | 38% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 1,888 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Sunnyside, the top three, the last and three more from Washington.
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 Sunnyside: questions
What is the median household income in Sunnyside?
$60,923 (±$4,568) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $98,141 across Washington and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sunnyside?
18.5%, against 9.9% across Washington and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sunnyside?
25 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Washington and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sunnyside work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Yakima (11%, 32 mi), Grandview (6%, 7 mi), Prosser (4%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sunnyside walkable?
Sunnyside is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 10.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sunnyside without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. 8% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sunnyside, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sunnyside
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.