Planning staff: 39,000 people commute into Hillsborough County daily; work‑from‑home nearly tripled since 2018

Planning commission staff presented new analysis of worker flows and commuting trends to the Hillsborough County City‑County Planning Commission on May 12, 2025, saying Hillsborough County’s local economy draws tens of thousands of daily commuters and that nearly one in five county workers now work from home.

The presentation matters because the data—aggregated to tract and jurisdiction levels—helps the county and its cities understand where workers travel, which industries drive flows, and how telework and commute times are changing, information planners said.

Gonzales, planning commission staff, told commissioners the county’s economy is large and mobile, saying, “At $116,000,000,000 per year, Hillsborough County is 1 of the largest economies in local economies in the state and the largest in the Tampa Bay region.” He said the staff’s analytics, using the latest worker‑flow data through 2021 and American Community Survey trend data, show roughly 39,000 inbound commuters to Hillsborough County and about 87,000 outbound commuters on a typical workday.

Staff said most inbound trips come from neighboring Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties and that outbound trips are concentrated to the same counties. At the county level, Gonzales reported the largest industry categories for inbound and outbound flows are education and health, information and finance, wholesale and retail trade and professional services. He said, however, that subcounty (tract and jurisdictional) analyses reveal sharper differences: for example, Plant City shows a higher share of manufacturing and logistics jobs among inbound commuters, while Temple Terrace draws more information, finance and professional‑service workers.

Gonzales said staff used a federal worker‑flow dataset (LEHD/LODES) and a transportation consortium download—“it’s funded by FDOT and other state level, transportation departments,” he said—and that staff produced interactive maps and blog posts to make the results available to officials and the public.

On trends, staff reported the share of workers who regularly work from home has grown sharply. Gonzales said, “In our specific case, Hillsborough County, nearly 1 in 5 people are working from home. And that number has tripled, almost tripled since 2018.” He contrasted that with the share of commuters with longer than one‑hour commutes, which he said remains a relatively small portion of workers—about 9 percent countywide.

Commissioners questioned the data sources and breakdowns. One asked whether the analysis used traffic counts or vehicle movement data; Gonzales replied, “No, sir. It's based on…people filling out surveys.” He clarified the worker‑flow figures reflect responses to questions about whether the person worked during the reference week, not raw vehicle counts. When asked about transit modes, Gonzales said the underlying datasets include mode breakdowns but that staff had not yet published those slices: “We haven't touched that data yet, but they do have breakdowns that we can go into and look…so you can see which tracks are used in more public transit, more…bicycle, more walkable, and also more cars.”

Staff noted the products include interactive maps at tract level and two blog posts published the week of the meeting; Gonzales said the material was already indexed in web searches. The presentation was an informational briefing; no commission action was requested or taken.

The planning commission asked staff to consider future briefings that show origin‑destination flows across bridges and corridors and to slice the datasets by travel mode and industry when possible. Gonzales said staff can provide additional breakdowns and maps upon request.