Edward L. Westbrooke Building · Photo: Brandonrush · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Jonesboro earn less than those in 81% of U.S. towns
About two in three work in Jonesboro; the top destination outside it is Paragould (4%, 19 miles). Below the poverty line: 22.8% of residents, against 16.0% across Arkansas. Jonesboro grades C− for jobs and income and B− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Jonesboro, in brief
Jonesboro is where the jobs are
Jonesboro has 45,727 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Jonesboro are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 23 across Arkansas. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Arkansas worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Inside Jonesboro’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Jonesboro is better than 21% of U.S. towns, #67 of 123 in Arkansas. Job access by car holds Jonesboro’s grade up (ahead of 64% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Jonesboro could be anywhere from C− to C.
In and out of Jonesboro on a workday
On a workday 10,872 residents head out to work, 19,548 work right here, and 26,179 people come in from elsewhere.
About 99,000 people are in Jonesboro on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
1.5 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.
Getting to work from Jonesboro takes about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Jonesboro workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 32,818 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Arkansas: 87% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Commuting in to Jonesboro: where workers come from
Where Jonesboro clocks in
4% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
The 45,727 jobs based in Jonesboro
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Jonesboro, 2013 → 2023: 39,536 → 45,727. 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.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Jonesboro’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Jonesboro
About 19% 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.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Jonesboro, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Jonesboro is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns, #45 of 123 in Arkansas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.0% across Arkansas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 35,551 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 7.6% of Jonesboro households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Jonesboro’s commuters take a bus or train.
Jonesboro and other U.S. towns of 58,000 to 112,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Fulshear TX | 64,630 | $187K | 1.6% | 2.8% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 80 | Bentonville AR | 63,057 | $113K | 5.2% | 3.1% | 43% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 208 | Rogers AR | 76,956 | $87K | 10.5% | 2.5% | 28% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 353 | Fayetteville AR | 106,623 | $63K | 20.6% | 4.0% | 45% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 529 | Jacksonville NC | 72,732 | $58K | 12.7% | 7.4% | 32% | C− |
| 530 | Lorain OH | 65,366 | $49K | 25.2% | 6.3% | 15% | C− |
| 531 | Jonesboro AR | 83,296 | $55K | 22.8% | 6.3% | 64% | C− |
| 532 | Peoria City Township IL | 95,876 | $52K | 23.4% | 8.3% | 46% | C− |
| 533 | Center Township IN | 64,861 | $44K | 29.0% | 7.7% | 41% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 555 | Albany GA | 66,907 | $47K | 27.5% | 11.2% | 51% | D |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Jonesboro, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
The towns around Jonesboro
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Jonesboro’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Jonesboro: questions
What is the median household income in Jonesboro?
$55,424 (±$3,744) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Jonesboro?
22.8%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Jonesboro?
18 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Jonesboro work?
64% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Paragould (4%, 19 mi), Little Rock (3%, 121 mi), Batesville (1%, 53 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Jonesboro walkable?
Jonesboro is more walkable than 52% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Jonesboro without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Jonesboro, from the people who make the trip.
More of Jonesboro
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. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.