Photo: Kaibab National Forest · CC BY-SA 2.0With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Parks works elsewhere
Only 3% work in Parks itself; outside it, Flagstaff draws the most (27%, 21 miles). Employers in Parks report 121 jobs for 410 working residents. Parks grades B− for jobs and income and D− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Parks, in brief
Fewer jobs are based in Parks than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Parks fell from 373 in 2013 to 121 in 2023, −68%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Parks and Flagstaff trade workers both ways
Flagstaff is the top workplace for Parks residents (27%) and also where the most people who work in Parks come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
43% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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; with 410 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Parks
On income, poverty and job access, Parks is better than 48% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Parks’ grade up (5.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 13% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.0%) is left out: Parks’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Parks could be anywhere from C− to B+.
The kinds of work in Parks
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Parks, 2013 → 2023: 373 → 121. 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 Parks’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting out of Parks: the destinations
Where Parks clocks in
27% of workers
15% of workers
11% 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.
Miles to work from Parks
About 43% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Parks
On a workday 397 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 108 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Parks on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Time on the road from Parks: about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Parks workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 582 commuters (the 23% who work from home are left out). Across Arizona: 82% 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.
Parks is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Parks is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Parks 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 751 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.0% of Parks households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Parks’ commuters take a bus or train.
Parks is 2,300th of 5,760 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 916 | Fort Valley AZ | 1,761 | $126K | 5.2% | 0.6% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,130 | Centennial Park AZ | 1,839 | $168K | 3.5% | 2.5% | 31% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,152 | Bellemont AZ | 1,701 | $120K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,298 | Brown Township OH | 1,879 | $74K | 10.4% | 2.5% | 5% | B− |
| 2,299 | Calais VT | 1,661 | $101K | 8.8% | 0.8% | 5% | B− |
| 2,300 | Parks AZ | 1,706 | $78K | 5.5% | 1.0% | 3% | B− |
| 2,301 | Sutton NE | 1,466 | $81K | 5.8% | 1.3% | 23% | B− |
| 2,302 | James Township MI | 1,746 | $70K | 11.4% | 4.3% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Parks, the top three, the last and three more from Arizona.
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 Parks: questions
What is the median household income in Parks?
$78,333 (±$25,376) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Parks?
5.5%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Parks?
31 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 22% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Parks work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Flagstaff (27%, 21 mi), Williams (15%, 12 mi), Phoenix (11%, 119 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Parks walkable?
Parks is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Parks without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Parks, from the people who make the trip.
More of Parks
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.