Photo: Coal town guy · CC BY-SA 4.0Gary has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
Hardly any work in Gary itself; outside it, Welch draws the most (13%, 5 miles). Employers in Gary report 52 jobs, against 157 working residents. 0% of workers work from home; West Virginia has 9%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The workday shuffle in and out of Gary
On a workday 156 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 51 people come in from elsewhere.
About 580 people are in Gary on a workday afternoon, 15% 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.
Where people from Gary work
Where Gary clocks in
13% of workers
6% of workers
3% 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 Gary’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gary, 2013 → 2023: 622 → 52. 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 Gary’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 50 minutes to work from Gary
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 16 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gary workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 344 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across West Virginia: 86% 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 Gary goes to work
About 34% 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.
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 Gary: questions
What is the median household income in Gary?
$41,603 (±$6,887) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gary?
12.8%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gary?
50 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gary work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Welch (13%, 5 mi), Bluefield (6%, 19 mi), Keystone (3%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Gary without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gary, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gary
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.