Work & commute · Laurens

Work & commute in Laurens, IA

42% of Laurens’s working residents work right in town. The top destinations are Pocahontas (8%), Fort Dodge (2%) and Sioux City (2%). Half commute less than 12 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

42%

210 of 498 working residents

Typical commute

12 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

22 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 288 Laurens residents head out of town to work, 210 work right here, and 737 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in Laurens.

288live here, work elsewhere

210live and work here

737work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where Laurens goes to work

Laurens (in town)right here

42%210

Pocahontas12 mi away

8%39

Fort Dodge41.4 mi away

2%12

Sioux City82 mi away

2%10

Emmetsburg20.3 mi away

2%9

Humboldt32.7 mi away

2%9

Havelock7.5 mi away

2%8

Des Moines108.5 mi away

1%7

Ames84.4 mi away

1%6

West Des Moines105 mi away

1%6

Everywhere elseother towns and states

37%182

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

How far

How far Laurens commutes

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

47%

19%

11%

23%

47%Under 10 mi

19%10–24 mi

11%25–50 mi

23%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

Laurens is a job hub

1.90jobs per working resident

A job hub

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

The jobs

What the jobs in Laurens are

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

Jobs based in Laurens

947 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)39%

Trade, transport & utilities45%

Services (health, schools, offices…)16%

$1,250 a month or less10%

$1,251–$3,333 a month16%

Over $3,333 a month74%

Jobs Laurens residents hold

498 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)37%

Trade, transport & utilities29%

Services (health, schools, offices…)34%

$1,250 a month or less17%

$1,251–$3,333 a month25%

Over $3,333 a month58%

−9%

Jobs based in Laurens, 2013 → 2023: 1,035 → 947. 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.