45% of Harlan’s working residents work right in town
45% of Harlan’s working residents work right in town. The top destinations are Omaha (6%), Council Bluffs (5%) and Denison (3%). Half commute less than 5 miles.
What kind of work town is Harlan?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
Harlan fills up on a workday
On a workday 1,211 residents head out to work, 978 work right here, and 1,940 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,600 people are in Harlan on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.33 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
About 14 minutes each way, quicker than most of Iowa
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Harlan workers work from home, vs 11% across Iowa. Their commute is the hallway.
Half of Harlan commutes less than 5 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 18% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
6% of working residents work in Omaha
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Harlan clocks in
6% of workers
5% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 2,918 jobs in Harlan are
2,918 jobs are based in Harlan. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Harlan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Harlan, 2013 → 2023: 3,179 → 2,918. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Every worker, home to work. The 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 says. A 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 surveys. Flows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: the Census American Community Survey.
- Straight lines. Distances are as the crow flies between home and work. Roads, rivers and traffic make the real trip longer.
More of Harlan
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Harlan, from the people who make the trip.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer.