Work & commute · Lake San Marcos

Work & commute in Lake San Marcos, CA

Most working residents leave Lake San Marcos for work: only 1% work in town. The top destinations are San Diego (23%), Carlsbad (15%) and San Marcos (12%). Half commute less than 11 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

11 of 2,104 working residents

Typical commute

11 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

24 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

24%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 2,093 Lake San Marcos residents head out of town to work, 11 work right here, and 666 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Lake San Marcos.

2,093live here, work elsewhere

11live and work here

666work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where Lake San Marcos goes to work

San Diego20.4 mi away

23%488

Carlsbad4.6 mi away

15%316

San Marcos2.5 mi away

12%251

Escondido7.8 mi away

5%103

Vista5.4 mi away

4%92

Encinitas5.6 mi away

4%84

Oceanside9.4 mi away

4%74

Los Angeles93.2 mi away

3%65

Irvine50.6 mi away

2%37

Poway14 mi away

1%31

Everywhere elseother towns and states

27%563

Lines run between town centers; a thicker line means more commuters. The top 10 towns each way.

How far

How far Lake San Marcos commutes

Straight-line distance from home to work, for every working resident. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

47%

23%

20%

47%Under 10 mi

23%10–24 mi

9%25–50 mi

20%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

Lake San Marcos is a commuter town

0.32jobs per working resident

A commuter town

0.32 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.

The jobs

What the jobs in Lake San Marcos are

677 jobs are based in Lake San Marcos. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Lake San Marcos’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Lake San Marcos

677 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)2%

Trade, transport & utilities2%

Services (health, schools, offices…)97%

$1,250 a month or less14%

$1,251–$3,333 a month40%

Over $3,333 a month46%

Jobs Lake San Marcos residents hold

2,104 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)16%

Trade, transport & utilities17%

Services (health, schools, offices…)67%

$1,250 a month or less10%

$1,251–$3,333 a month18%

Over $3,333 a month72%

+41%

Jobs based in Lake San Marcos, 2013 → 2023: 480 → 677. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

About these numbers

How to read this page

Every worker, home to workThe Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.

Where the employer saysA job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.

Two surveysFlows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time and working from home: the Census American Community Survey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs; American Community Survey 5-year estimates.