Photo: JodyMBrumage. The original uploader was JodyMBrumage at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 4.0Union draws 306 commuters a day, with 2.1 jobs for every working resident
Working from home is the commute for 16% of workers; West Virginia has 9%. 316 jobs are based in Union for 147 working residents. Only 7% work in Union; the top destination outside it is Lewisburg (6%, 16 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who leaves Union for work, and who comes in
On a workday 137 residents head out to work and 10 work right here.
About 590 people are in Union on a workday afternoon, 40% more 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.
Who travels to work in Union, and from where
Where Union clocks in
6% 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.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Union
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Union, 2013 → 2023: 756 → 316. 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 Union’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Union spends getting to work: about 15 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Union workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 149 commuters (the 16% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Union
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 Union: questions
What is the median household income in Union?
$35,000 (±$14,454) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $59,608 across West Virginia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Union?
9.0%, against 16.7% across West Virginia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Union?
15 minutes each way on average, against 27 across West Virginia and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Union work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lewisburg (6%, 16 mi), Beckley (5%, 36 mi), Alderson (4%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Union without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and <1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Union, from the people who make the trip.
More of Union
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.