Work & commute · Palm Beach

Work & commute in Palm Beach, FL

Most working residents leave Palm Beach for work: only 19% work in town. The top destinations are West Palm Beach (12%), Boca Raton (4%) and Fort Lauderdale (3%). Half commute less than 17 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

19%

466 of 2,514 working residents

Typical commute

17 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

24 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

40%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 2,048 Palm Beach residents head out of town to work, 466 work right here, and 14,954 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Palm Beach.

2,048live here, work elsewhere

466live and work here

14,954work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where Palm Beach goes to work

Palm Beach (in town)right here

19%466

West Palm Beach6.3 mi away

12%305

Boca Raton22.7 mi away

4%97

Fort Lauderdale38.8 mi away

3%67

Miami64.4 mi away

3%63

Palm Beach Gardens13.1 mi away

2%61

Delray Beach16.8 mi away

2%52

Boynton Beach11.9 mi away

2%46

Jupiter16.3 mi away

2%42

Pompano Beach31.8 mi away

1%37

Everywhere elseother towns and states

51%1,278

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

How far

How far Palm Beach commutes

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

41%

18%

14%

27%

41%Under 10 mi

18%10–24 mi

14%25–50 mi

27%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

Palm Beach is a job hub

6.13jobs per working resident

A job hub

6.1 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.

The jobs

What the jobs in Palm Beach are

15,420 jobs are based in Palm Beach. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Palm Beach’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Palm Beach

15,420 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)2%

Trade, transport & utilities11%

Services (health, schools, offices…)88%

$1,250 a month or less10%

$1,251–$3,333 a month26%

Over $3,333 a month64%

Jobs Palm Beach residents hold

2,514 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)10%

Trade, transport & utilities20%

Services (health, schools, offices…)70%

$1,250 a month or less12%

$1,251–$3,333 a month23%

Over $3,333 a month66%

+43%

Jobs based in Palm Beach, 2013 → 2023: 10,808 → 15,420. 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.