Pennsboro B&O Depot · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainHow Pennsboro works: jobs, income and commuting
About one in ten stay in Pennsboro for work; outside it, Parkersburg is the main destination (10%, 31 miles). For 3% of workers, the job is at home, where West Virginia as a whole has 9%. Commuters spend 31 minutes getting to work on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Pennsboro and work: the main findings
Pennsboro’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Pennsboro is Parkersburg, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 10% of working residents (40) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Pennsboro makes and builds things
46% of the jobs based in Pennsboro are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Pennsboro residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 32%. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 413 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How many miles Pennsboro commutes
About 21% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Making and building: 46% of jobs based in Pennsboro
491 jobs are based in Pennsboro.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pennsboro, 2014 → 2024: 650 → 491. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Pennsboro’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Pennsboro for work, and who comes in
On a workday 376 residents head out to work, 37 work right here, and 454 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 (1.19 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where the trip to work from Pennsboro ends
Where Pennsboro clocks in
10% of workers
7% 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.
How long Pennsboro spends getting to work: about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pennsboro workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 521 commuters (the 3% 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.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 Pennsboro: questions
What is the median household income in Pennsboro?
$51,327 (±$5,770) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pennsboro?
22.2%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pennsboro?
31 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pennsboro work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Parkersburg (10%, 31 mi), Harrisville (7%, 7 mi), Ellenboro (4%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Can you get around Pennsboro without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pennsboro, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pennsboro
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.