Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki ([email protected]) · CC BY 3.0Jonesboro draws more than half of Lake City’s working residents
Jobs and income earn Lake City C−; getting around on foot earns it D. Working from home is the commute for 1% of workers; Arkansas has 9%. Only 4% stay in Lake City for work; outside it, Jonesboro is the main destination (51%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lake City: the figures worth knowing
Jobs & income in Lake City: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Lake City is better than 22% of U.S. towns, #65 of 123 in Arkansas. Job access by car holds Lake City’s grade up (ahead of 39% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (7.0%, U.S. 5.2%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Lake City could be anywhere from D to B.
Where people from Lake City work
Where Lake City clocks in
51% of workers
5% of workers
2% 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.
Lake City by day and by night
On a workday 906 residents head out to work, 33 work right here, and 361 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Lake City on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
0.42 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 2024, primary jobs.
What the 394 jobs in Lake City are
394 jobs are based in Lake City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lake City, 2014 → 2024: 319 → 394. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Lake City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 21 minutes each way, about the AR average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lake City workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,187 commuters (the 1% 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.
The commute from Lake City, by distance
About 15% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
In Lake City, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lake City is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns, #119 of 123 in Arkansas. Both inputs place Lake City near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,194 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). 6.7% of Lake City households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Lake City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Lake City is 3,605th among 4,703 U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 155 | Johnson AR | 3,684 | $96K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 234 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 347 | Salem AR | 2,642 | $74K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,603 | Otter Creek Township IL | 2,623 | $84K | 25.1% | 6.3% | 1% | C− |
| 3,604 | Rosemount OH | 2,199 | $42K | 13.3% | 4.2% | 3% | C− |
| 3,605 | Lake City AR | 2,796 | $60K | 12.3% | 7.0% | 4% | C− |
| 3,606 | McSherrystown PA | 3,150 | $61K | 19.3% | 8.2% | 1% | C− |
| 3,607 | Stockton Township IL | 2,209 | $54K | 12.7% | 4.3% | 21% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,703 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 0% | 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 Lake City, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 Lake City: questions
What is the median household income in Lake City?
$60,273 (±$3,828) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lake City?
12.3%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lake City?
21 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lake City work?
4% work in town.
Is Lake City walkable?
Lake City is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lake City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lake City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lake City
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.