94% of Oak Ridge’s working residents leave town for work
Most working residents leave Oak Ridge for work: only 6% work in town. The top destinations are Jefferson (9%), New York (5%) and Parsippany-Troy Hills (4%). Half commute less than 17 miles.
What kind of work town is Oak Ridge?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
9% of working residents work in Jefferson
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Oak Ridge clocks in
9% of workers
5% of workers
4% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
What the 2,067 jobs in Oak Ridge are
2,067 jobs are based in Oak Ridge. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Oak Ridge’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Oak Ridge, 2013 → 2023: 1,664 → 2,067. 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.
About 42 minutes each way, longer than most of New Jersey
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 13.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Oak Ridge workers work from home, vs 17% across New Jersey. Their commute is the hallway.
Oak Ridge quiets down on a workday
On a workday 5,275 residents head out to work, 336 work right here, and 1,731 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,400 people are in Oak Ridge on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer than live here.
0.37 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Half of Oak Ridge commutes less than 17 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
14% of Oak Ridge works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Jefferson (9%). Darker towns draw more of Oak Ridge’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Average commute minutes, one way
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 Oak Ridge
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Oak Ridge, 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.