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Work & commute in Adams · A commuter town

91% of Adams’s working residents leave town for work

Most working residents leave Adams for work: only 9% work in town. The top destinations are Watertown (33%), Watertown (10%) and Hounsfield (3%). Half commute less than 12 miles.

Work in town
9%
160 of 1,796 working residents
Typical commute
12 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
23 min
Less than NY (33 min)
Work from home
10%
Less than NY (15%)
Jobs based here
1,052
A commuter town

What kind of work town is Adams?

Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Time on the road

About 23 minutes each way, quicker than most of New York

From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.

A year of commuting
178 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Adams23 min
New York33 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
10%

of Adams workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.

About 1 in 10

How Adams ranks on commute time →

The commute map

33% of working residents work in Watertown

A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.

Watertown: 585 residents work here (33%)Syracuse: 29 residents work here (2%)Albany: 31 residents work here (2%)New York: 24 residents work here (1%)HendersonPamelia: 26 residents work here (1%)LorraineAdamsRodmanBrownvilleEllisburg: 50 residents work here (3%)Le Ray: 41 residents work here (2%)Watertown: 185 residents work here (10%)Hounsfield: 54 residents work here (3%)Sandy CreekWatertownWatertownHounsfieldEllisburgLe RayAlbanyAdams
1
Watertown11.5 mi away
33%585
2
Watertown9.1 mi away
10%185
3
Adams (in town)right here
9%160
4
Hounsfield13.4 mi away
3%54
5
Ellisburg7.3 mi away
3%50
6
Le Ray20.7 mi away
2%41
7
Albany139.7 mi away
2%31
8
Syracuse55.6 mi away
2%29
9
Pamelia16.3 mi away
1%26
10
New York245 mi away
1%24
Everywhere elseother towns and states
34%611
The top trips

Where Adams clocks in

Lines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.

Day and night

Adams quiets down on a workday

On a workday 1,636 residents head out to work, 160 work right here, and 892 people come in from elsewhere.

1,636live here, work elsewhere
160live and work here
892work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night4,900
Workday4,200
4,900live here− 1,600head out to work+ 890come in to work= 4,200on a workday

About 4,200 people are in Adams on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.59jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

0.59 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.

How far

Half of Adams commutes less than 12 miles

Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

10 mi25 mi50 mi80 miWatertown: 33% · 11.5 miWatertown: 10% · 9.1 miHounsfield: 3% · 13.4 miEllisburg: 3% · 7.3 miLe Ray: 2% · 20.7 miAlbany: 2% · 139.7 miSyracuse: 2% · 55.6 miPamelia: 1% · 16.3 miNew York: 1% · 245 miWatertown 33%Watertown 10%Hounsfield 3%Ellisburg 3%Le Ray 2%Adams
AdamsTop destinations (size = commuters)
33%Under 10 mi596 residents
36%10–24 mi653 residents
7%25–50 mi126 residents
23%Over 50 mi421 residents

About 23% 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.

The jobs

What the 1,052 jobs in Adams are

1,052 jobs are based in Adams. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Adams’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in AdamsJobs Adams residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms24%13%
Trade, transport & utilities34%21%
Services: health, schools, offices42%66%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less17%15%
$1,251–$3,333 a month31%27%
Over $3,333 a month52%58%

Who does it

29 or younger24%21%
30 to 5451%52%
55 and older25%27%
−2%

Jobs based in Adams, 2013 → 2023: 1,073 → 1,052. 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.

Next door

Adams and the towns next door

The biggest share goes to Hounsfield (3%). Darker towns draw more of Adams’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.

How to read these numbers

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.
Beyond the commute

More of Adams

Adams home →

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Adams, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
Weigh in
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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.

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