Work & commute · Seal Beach

Work & commute in Seal Beach, CA

Most working residents leave Seal Beach for work: only 5% work in town. The top destinations are Los Angeles (11%), Long Beach (10%) and Irvine (5%). Half commute less than 14 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

515 of 9,456 working residents

Typical commute

14 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

29 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

26%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 8,941 Seal Beach residents head out of town to work, 515 work right here, and 11,447 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Seal Beach.

8,941live here, work elsewhere

515live and work here

11,447work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where Seal Beach goes to work

Los Angeles26.7 mi away

11%1,052

Long Beach5.9 mi away

10%919

Seal Beach (in town)right here

5%515

Irvine18 mi away

5%485

Anaheim19.3 mi away

4%353

Huntington Beach5.5 mi away

4%338

Santa Ana10.9 mi away

3%301

Los Alamitos3 mi away

2%234

Orange12.3 mi away

2%221

Newport Beach14.8 mi away

2%216

Everywhere elseother towns and states

51%4,822

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

How far

How far Seal Beach commutes

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

33%

44%

12%

10%

33%Under 10 mi

44%10–24 mi

12%25–50 mi

10%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

Seal Beach is balanced between jobs and homes

1.27jobs per working resident

Balanced

About as many jobs as working residents (1.27 per resident).

The jobs

What the jobs in Seal Beach are

11,962 jobs are based in Seal Beach. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Seal Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Seal Beach

11,962 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)38%

Trade, transport & utilities17%

Services (health, schools, offices…)45%

$1,250 a month or less10%

$1,251–$3,333 a month20%

Over $3,333 a month70%

Jobs Seal Beach residents hold

9,456 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)14%

Trade, transport & utilities20%

Services (health, schools, offices…)66%

$1,250 a month or less12%

$1,251–$3,333 a month20%

Over $3,333 a month68%

+37%

Jobs based in Seal Beach, 2013 → 2023: 8,749 → 11,962. 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.