Work & commute · West Athens

Work & commute in West Athens, CA

Most working residents leave West Athens for work: only 2% work in town. The top destinations are Los Angeles (36%), Torrance (5%) and Long Beach (4%). Half commute less than 9 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

76 of 3,463 working residents

Typical commute

9 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

26 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 3,387 West Athens residents head out of town to work, 76 work right here, and 1,474 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in West Athens.

3,387live here, work elsewhere

76live and work here

1,474work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where West Athens goes to work

Los Angeles9 mi away

36%1,237

Torrance7.1 mi away

5%160

Long Beach12.5 mi away

4%130

Carson6.5 mi away

3%94

Culver City7.8 mi away

3%92

El Segundo7 mi away

3%91

Hawthorne2.6 mi away

2%85

Inglewood3.3 mi away

2%83

West Athens (in town)right here

2%76

Gardena2 mi away

2%63

Everywhere elseother towns and states

39%1,352

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

How far

How far West Athens commutes

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

58%

27%

58%Under 10 mi

27%10–24 mi

8%25–50 mi

8%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

West Athens is a commuter town

0.45jobs per working resident

A commuter town

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

The jobs

What the jobs in West Athens are

1,550 jobs are based in West Athens. Here is what they are, next to the jobs West Athens’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in West Athens

1,550 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)3%

Trade, transport & utilities16%

Services (health, schools, offices…)81%

$1,250 a month or less8%

$1,251–$3,333 a month32%

Over $3,333 a month60%

Jobs West Athens residents hold

3,463 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)12%

Trade, transport & utilities22%

Services (health, schools, offices…)66%

$1,250 a month or less10%

$1,251–$3,333 a month30%

Over $3,333 a month59%

+18%

Jobs based in West Athens, 2013 → 2023: 1,313 → 1,550. 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.