Photo: Youngamerican · CC BY-SA 3.0Hometown has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
Home is the office for 0% of workers, next to 9% for West Virginia as a whole. 41 jobs are based in Hometown for 153 working residents. Hardly any work in Hometown itself; outside it, Charleston draws the most (20%, 17 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The workday shuffle in and out of Hometown
On a workday 152 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 40 people come in from elsewhere.
About 640 people are in Hometown 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 Hometown work
Where Hometown clocks in
20% of workers
4% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hometown, 2013 → 2023: 17 → 41. 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 Hometown’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Working from home in Hometown
of Hometown workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 245 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.
Where in the region Hometown works
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.
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 Hometown: questions
What is the median household income in Hometown?
$28,876 (±$14,074) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hometown?
30.2%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
Where do people who live in Hometown work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Charleston (20%, 17 mi), South Charleston (4%, 15 mi), Huntington (4%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Hometown without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 35% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hometown, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hometown
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.