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Work & commute in Erie · A commuter town

95% of Erie’s working residents leave town for work

Most working residents leave Erie for work: only 5% work in town. The top destinations are Port Clinton (11%), Portage (9%) and Fremont (6%). Half commute less than 16 miles.

Work in town
5%
29 of 552 working residents
Typical commute
16 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
22 min
Less than OH (23 min)
Work from home
0%
Less than OH (13%)
Jobs based here
318
A commuter town

What kind of work town is Erie?

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

★ What stands out · The commute map

11% of working residents work in Port Clinton

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

Oak Harbor: 11 residents work here (2%)Port Clinton: 62 residents work here (11%)BellevueFremont: 31 residents work here (6%)Sandusky: 26 residents work here (5%)Toledo: 30 residents work here (5%)Harris: 10 residents work here (2%)Portage: 52 residents work here (9%)ErieCarrollBay: 15 residents work here (3%)Perkins: 14 residents work here (3%)SalemPort ClintonPortageFremontToledoSanduskyBayErie
1
Port Clinton4.6 mi away
11%62
2
Portage5.7 mi away
9%52
3
Fremont14.3 mi away
6%31
4
Toledo30.5 mi away
5%30
5
Erie (in town)right here
5%29
6
Sandusky16.6 mi away
5%26
7
Bay4.3 mi away
3%15
8
Perkins19.5 mi away
3%14
9
Oak Harbor6.9 mi away
2%11
10
Harris13.1 mi away
2%10
Everywhere elseother towns and states
49%272
The top trips

Where Erie clocks in

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

The jobs

Erie makes things: 62% of its jobs are in goods

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

Jobs based in ErieJobs Erie residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms62%30%
Trade, transport & utilities1%18%
Services: health, schools, offices37%53%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less5%13%
$1,251–$3,333 a month23%34%
Over $3,333 a month72%53%

Who does it

29 or younger11%20%
30 to 5458%46%
55 and older31%34%
+1%

Jobs based in Erie, 2013 → 2023: 314 → 318. 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.

Day and night

Erie quiets down on a workday

On a workday 523 residents head out to work, 29 work right here, and 289 people come in from elsewhere.

523live here, work elsewhere
29live and work here
289work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night1,300
Workday1,000
1,300live here− 520head out to work+ 290come in to work= 1,000on a workday

About 1,000 people are in Erie on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.58jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

0.58 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 Erie commutes less than 16 miles

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

10 mi25 mi35 miPort Clinton: 11% · 4.6 miPortage: 9% · 5.7 miFremont: 6% · 14.3 miToledo: 5% · 30.5 miSandusky: 5% · 16.6 miBay: 3% · 4.3 miPerkins: 3% · 19.5 miOak Harbor: 2% · 6.9 miHarris: 2% · 13.1 miPort Clinton 11%Portage 9%Fremont 6%Toledo 5%Sandusky 5%Erie
ErieTop destinations (size = commuters)
34%Under 10 mi185 residents
27%10–24 mi148 residents
18%25–50 mi101 residents
21%Over 50 mi118 residents

About 21% 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.

Time on the road

About 22 minutes each way, about the OH average

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

A year of commuting
170 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Erie22 min
Ohio23 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
0%

of Erie workers work from home, vs 13% across Ohio. Their commute is the hallway.

About 0 in 10
Next door

23% of Erie works in a bordering town

The biggest share goes to Port Clinton (11%). Darker towns draw more of Erie’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 Erie

Erie home →

Commuter talk

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

Town Square →
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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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