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Work & commute · Los Alamos

Work & commute in Los Alamos, CA

Most working residents leave Los Alamos for work: only 4% work in town. The top destinations are Santa Barbara (7%), Solvang (6%) and Santa Maria (6%). Half commute less than 33 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times
Work in town
4%
19 of 541 working residents
Typical commute
33 mi
Half commute less than this, straight-line
Average commute time
19 min
One way, from the Census survey
Work from home
15%
of workers, from the Census survey
Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 522 Los Alamos residents head out of town to work, 19 work right here, and 254 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Los Alamos.

522live here, work elsewhere
19live and work here
254work here, live elsewhere
Leave for workStayCome in
The map

Where Los Alamos goes to work

BuelltonSolvangArroyo GrandeGoletaLompocSanta MariaSanta BarbaraLos AngelesLos AlamosLos OlivosSanta YnezVandenberg VillageOrcuttEastern Goleta ValleySanta BarbaraSolvangSanta MariaLos AngelesBuelltonLompocLos OlivosEastern Goleta ValleyGoletaLos Alamos
1
Santa Barbara39.6 mi away
7%36
2
Solvang12.8 mi away
6%35
3
Santa Maria16.3 mi away
6%35
4
Los Angeles117.4 mi away
4%24
5
Buellton9.8 mi away
4%23
6
Lompoc12.4 mi away
4%22
7
Los Olivos10.5 mi away
4%20
8
Los Alamos (in town)right here
4%19
9
Eastern Goleta Valley34.5 mi away
4%19
10
Goleta31.7 mi away
3%18
Everywhere elseother towns and states
54%290

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

How far

How far Los Alamos commutes

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

9%Under 10 mi
37%10–24 mi
19%25–50 mi
34%Over 50 mi
Job hub or commuter town?

Los Alamos is a commuter town

0.50jobs per working resident
A commuter town

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

The jobs

What the jobs in Los Alamos are

273 jobs are based in Los Alamos. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Los Alamos’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Los Alamos

273 jobs
Goods (factories, building, farms)16%
Trade, transport & utilities14%
Services (health, schools, offices…)69%
$1,250 a month or less20%
$1,251–$3,333 a month40%
Over $3,333 a month40%

Jobs Los Alamos residents hold

541 working residents
Goods (factories, building, farms)24%
Trade, transport & utilities18%
Services (health, schools, offices…)58%
$1,250 a month or less13%
$1,251–$3,333 a month30%
Over $3,333 a month57%
+1087%

Jobs based in Los Alamos, 2013 → 2023: 23 → 273. 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.

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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/19 · 2025-01-01
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