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Work & commute in Horseheads · A job hub

Every workday, about 3,600 people come to Horseheads for work

Most working residents leave Horseheads for work: only 14% work in town. The top destinations are Horseheads (25%), Elmira (17%) and Big Flats (7%). Half commute less than 6 miles.

Work in town
14%
351 of 2,516 working residents
Typical commute
6 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
17 min
Less than NY (33 min)
Work from home
7%
Less than NY (15%)
Jobs based here
3,913
A job hub

What kind of work town is Horseheads?

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

★ What stands out · Time on the road

About 17 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
130 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Horseheads17 min
New York33 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
7%

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

About 1 in 10

How Horseheads ranks on commute time →

How far

Half of Horseheads commutes less than 6 miles

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

10 mi25 mi30 miHorseheads: 25% · 2.7 miElmira: 17% · 5.3 miBig Flats: 7% · 4.8 miCorning: 6% · 11.7 miErwin: 3% · 16.1 miCorning: 3% · 9.5 miElmira: 2% · 5.7 miDix: 2% · 12 miIthaca: 2% · 25.3 miIthaca: 1% · 22.5 miHorseheads 25%Elmira 17%Big Flats 7%Corning 6%Horseheads
HorseheadsTop destinations (size = commuters)
53%Under 10 mi1,329 residents
21%10–24 mi529 residents
8%25–50 mi210 residents
18%Over 50 mi446 residents

About 18% 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 commute map

Where Horseheads’s workers come from

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

Corning: 104 workers live here (3%)HorseheadsIthacaElmira: 375 workers live here (10%)New York: 72 workers live here (2%)Horseheads: 835 workers live here (21%)Southport: 185 workers live here (5%)Elmira: 136 workers live here (3%)DixCorning: 74 workers live here (2%)Veteran: 96 workers live here (2%)Big Flats: 253 workers live here (6%)Catlin: 70 workers live here (2%)ErwinIthacaHorseheads NorthHorseheadsElmiraBig FlatsSouthportElmiraCorningHorseheads
1
Horseheads2.7 mi away
21%835
2
Elmira5.3 mi away
10%375
3
Big Flats4.8 mi away
6%253
4
Southport8.6 mi away
5%185
5
Elmira5.7 mi away
3%136
6
Corning11.7 mi away
3%104
7
Veteran5.7 mi away
2%96
8
Corning9.5 mi away
2%74
9
New York182.4 mi away
2%72
10
Catlin5.5 mi away
2%70
Everywhere elseother towns and states
44%1,713
The top trips

Where Horseheads clocks in

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

Day and night

Horseheads fills up on a workday

On a workday 2,165 residents head out to work, 351 work right here, and 3,562 people come in from elsewhere.

2,165live here, work elsewhere
351live and work here
3,562work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night6,400
Workday7,800
6,400live here− 2,200head out to work+ 3,600come in to work= 7,800on a workday

About 7,800 people are in Horseheads on a workday afternoon, 22% more than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
1.56jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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

What the 3,913 jobs in Horseheads are

3,913 jobs are based in Horseheads. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Horseheads’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in HorseheadsJobs Horseheads residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms15%17%
Trade, transport & utilities24%17%
Services: health, schools, offices61%66%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less15%15%
$1,251–$3,333 a month29%30%
Over $3,333 a month56%55%

Who does it

29 or younger21%22%
30 to 5453%53%
55 and older26%26%
−9%

Jobs based in Horseheads, 2013 → 2023: 4,291 → 3,913. 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

Horseheads and the towns next door

Darker towns draw more of Horseheads’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 Horseheads

Horseheads home →

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Horseheads, 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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