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Work & commute in Cayuga Heights · A commuter town

98% of Cayuga Heights’s working residents leave town for work

Most working residents leave Cayuga Heights for work: only 2% work in town. The top destinations are Ithaca (44%), Ithaca (12%) and Lansing (7%). Half commute less than 4 miles.

Work in town
2%
22 of 1,381 working residents
Typical commute
4 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
13 min
Less than NY (33 min)
Work from home
23%
More than NY (15%)
Jobs based here
784
A commuter town

What kind of work town is Cayuga Heights?

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

★ What stands out · Time on the road

About 13 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
101 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.2 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Cayuga Heights13 min
New York33 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
23%

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

About 2 in 10

How Cayuga Heights ranks on commute time →

Next door

63% of Cayuga Heights works in a bordering town

The biggest share goes to Ithaca (44%). Darker towns draw more of Cayuga Heights’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.

The commute map

44% of working residents work in Ithaca

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

Cayuga HeightsCorning: 13 residents work here (1%)Cortland: 17 residents work here (1%)LansingIthaca: 159 residents work here (12%)Elmira: 11 residents work here (1%)Syracuse: 23 residents work here (2%)Rochester: 13 residents work here (1%)New York: 56 residents work here (4%)CarolineGrotonLansing: 96 residents work here (7%)Dryden: 21 residents work here (2%)NewfieldUlyssesIthaca: 602 residents work here (44%)Northeast IthacaIthacaIthacaLansingNew YorkSyracuseDrydenCayuga Heights
1
Ithaca4.6 mi away
44%602
2
Ithaca1.8 mi away
12%159
3
Lansing7.2 mi away
7%96
4
New York181.4 mi away
4%56
5
Syracuse43.3 mi away
2%23
6
Dryden6.5 mi away
2%21
7
Cortland18.2 mi away
1%17
8
Corning36.5 mi away
1%13
9
Rochester75 mi away
1%13
10
Elmira30.6 mi away
1%11
Everywhere elseother towns and states
27%370
The top trips

Where Cayuga Heights clocks in

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

How far

Half of Cayuga Heights commutes less than 4 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 miIthaca: 44% · 4.6 miIthaca: 12% · 1.8 miLansing: 7% · 7.2 miNew York: 4% · 181.4 miSyracuse: 2% · 43.3 miDryden: 2% · 6.5 miCortland: 1% · 18.2 miCorning: 1% · 36.5 miRochester: 1% · 75 miElmira: 1% · 30.6 miIthaca 44%Lansing 7%New York 4%Syracuse 2%Cayuga Heights
Cayuga HeightsTop destinations (size = commuters)
65%Under 10 mi893 residents
3%10–24 mi44 residents
12%25–50 mi171 residents
20%Over 50 mi273 residents

About 20% 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.

Day and night

Cayuga Heights quiets down on a workday

On a workday 1,359 residents head out to work, 22 work right here, and 762 people come in from elsewhere.

1,359live here, work elsewhere
22live and work here
762work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night4,000
Workday3,400
4,000live here− 1,400head out to work+ 760come in to work= 3,400on a workday

About 3,400 people are in Cayuga Heights on a workday afternoon, 15% fewer than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.57jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

0.57 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.

The jobs

Mostly services: health care, schools and offices

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

Jobs based in Cayuga HeightsJobs Cayuga Heights residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms3%5%
Trade, transport & utilities1%9%
Services: health, schools, offices96%85%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less12%14%
$1,251–$3,333 a month25%18%
Over $3,333 a month64%68%

Who does it

29 or younger21%24%
30 to 5448%50%
55 and older31%26%
+11%

Jobs based in Cayuga Heights, 2013 → 2023: 709 → 784. 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.

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 Cayuga Heights

Cayuga Heights home →

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Cayuga Heights, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
Weigh in
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Ask neighbors

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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