Every workday, about 2,300 people come to Northwest Ithaca for work
Most working residents leave Northwest Ithaca for work: only 6% work in town. The top destinations are Ithaca (30%), Ithaca (25%) and Lansing (6%). Half commute less than 5 miles.
What kind of work town is Northwest Ithaca?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
About 16 minutes each way, quicker than most of New York
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Northwest Ithaca workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Northwest Ithaca nearly doubles on a workday
On a workday 793 residents head out to work, 55 work right here, and 2,347 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,800 people are in Northwest Ithaca on a workday afternoon, 70% more than live here.
2.8 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
2,402 jobs are based in Northwest Ithaca. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Northwest Ithaca’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Northwest Ithaca, 2013 → 2023: 1,574 → 2,402. 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.
25% of Northwest Ithaca works in a bordering town
The biggest share goes to Ithaca (25%). Darker towns draw more of Northwest Ithaca’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Half of Northwest Ithaca commutes less than 5 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
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.
Where Northwest Ithaca’s workers come from
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Northwest Ithaca clocks in
30% of workers
25% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
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 Northwest Ithaca
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Northwest Ithaca, 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.