Every workday, about 3,000 people come to North Adams for work, and 3,400 head out
About one in 4 of North Adams’s working residents works in town. The top destinations are Pittsfield (17%), Williamstown (14%) and Adams (5%). Half commute less than 13 miles.
What kind of work town is North Adams?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
About 17 minutes each way, quicker than most of Massachusetts
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of North Adams workers work from home, vs 19% across Massachusetts. Their commute is the hallway.
20% of North Adams works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Williamstown (14%). Darker towns draw more of North Adams’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 3,387 residents head out to work, 1,322 work right here, and 3,033 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.92 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.
17% of working residents work in Pittsfield
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where North Adams clocks in
17% of workers
14% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Half of North Adams commutes less than 13 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 19% 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.
What the 4,355 jobs in North Adams are
4,355 jobs are based in North Adams. Here is what they are, next to the jobs North Adams’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in North Adams, 2013 → 2023: 4,845 → 4,355. 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 North Adams
Commuter talk
Getting to work from North Adams, 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.