We see the cars going back and forth over the county line, but let’s look at the cash that flows in all directions. In 2023 $96.5 billion dollars flowed into Indiana counties via commuting. That sum was accompanied by $87.6 billion going out of Indiana counties.

Our business-minded state government might point with pride to an $8.9 billion surplus in our trade of workers for cash. All it actually says is that many Hoosiers can find more pay outside the state than near to home.

At the county level, one winner is little Ohio County down on the river of the same name. There the inflow of money via commuting is 8 times greater than the outflow of earnings. But there might be some cause for rejoicing when we see Ohio County’s inflow was at 11 times great than its outflow in 1991.

True, Ohio County had a failing river boat which was to lift it high, but these data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) indicate improvements in 54 of our 92 Indiana counties over that third of a century.

Commuting is a good activity. It let’s people live and work where they find the best opportunities. But it does have social and family costs. Commuters generally are driving greater distances than if employed locally. This may be relaxing for a few, but in congested traffic they spend hours idling and away from home where they might do some good.

Brown County, where the inflow of earnings was 13 times the outflow in 1991, led the state in its path down to a multiple of 5 in 2023. In all, 66 counties saw an increase of the role played by earnings flowing in via commuting. The outflow of earnings generated by work increased in 69 counties.

Commuting to work, living at a distance from the job, has increased in the state as more women entered the paid labor force and auto ownership increased. In a “free market’ society this can be seen as consumer preferences at work. But what if those choices were based on low wages, inadequate housing, an absence of public transit, pollution, and social divisions? Escaping negative factors means that choices are constrained and not based solely on positive attributes of a job and a home.

Many Hoosiers have become commuters because firms and the jobs they offered moved elsewhere. Fayette County lost many good paying jobs. It flipped from a being a generator of earnings to being a importer of earnings. Between 1991 and 2023, Fayette residents went from depending on elsewhere for 16% of their earnings to relying on jobs elsewhere for 52% of their earnings.

Our leaders talk about our smaller, rural counties. Yet we haven’t seen much of a movement in the number of counties where the local share of earnings is rising with a decline in the outflow of earnings.
Morton J. Marcus is an economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His column appears in Indiana newspapers, and his views can be followed his podcast.

© 2025 Morton J. Marcus

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