Photo: Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0Port St. Joe has 2.0 jobs for every working resident: 2,039 people commute in to work
Measured by household income, Port St. Joe is behind 81% of U.S. towns. Port St. Joe has 2,468 jobs, against 1,226 working residents. For jobs and income Port St. Joe is better than 23% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Port St. Joe
Port St. Joe is where the jobs are
Port St. Joe has 2,468 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Port St. Joe are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 28 across Florida. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Florida worker. Time on the road ↓
The biggest group of Port St. Joe’s workers comes from Wewahitchka
148 of the people who work in Port St. Joe live in Wewahitchka, 23 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Where Port St. Joe’s Jobs & income grade comes from
The poverty rate holds Port St. Joe’s grade up (9.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 5% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Port St. Joe could be anywhere from D to B.
The daily commute in and out of Port St. Joe
On a workday 797 residents head out to work and 429 work right here.
About 5,200 people are in Port St. Joe on a workday afternoon, 31% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
How long Port St. Joe spends getting to work: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Port St. Joe workers work from home, vs 16% across Florida. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,237 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Florida: 83% 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.
Where the people who work in Port St. Joe live
Where Port St. Joe clocks in
6% 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.
Half of Port St. Joe commutes less than 26 miles
About 34% 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.
The kinds of work in Port St. Joe
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Port St. Joe, 2014 → 2024: 1,917 → 2,468. 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 Port St. Joe’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Few in Port St. Joe walk, bike or ride to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.6% across Florida.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,327 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). 5.5% of Port St. Joe households have no vehicle (Florida 6.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Port St. Joe’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,177 U.S. towns of 2,800 to 5,400, Port St. Joe comes 3,279th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Bay Hill FL | 4,512 | $128K | 0.7% | 1.5% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 80 | Geneva FL | 3,441 | $133K | 0.6% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 82 | Windermere FL | 3,344 | $178K | 1.3% | 2.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,277 | Lafayette Township OH | 4,336 | $54K | 28.6% | 2.6% | 8% | C− |
| 3,278 | Crosby TX | 4,617 | $59K | 36.8% | 9.9% | 1% | C− |
| 3,279 | Port St. Joe FL | 3,995 | $56K | 9.8% | 4.3% | 35% | C− |
| 3,280 | Green Level NC | 3,409 | $56K | 19.0% | 6.6% | 1% | C− |
| 3,281 | Haskell TX | 3,095 | $62K | 12.6% | 4.0% | 32% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,177 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Port St. Joe, the top three, the last and three more from Florida.
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 Port St. Joe: questions
What is the median household income in Port St. Joe?
$55,542 (±$8,108) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,568 across Florida and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Port St. Joe?
9.8%, against 12.6% across Florida and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Port St. Joe?
18 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Florida and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Port St. Joe work?
35% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Panama City (7%, 32 mi), Tallahassee (6%, 77 mi), Mexico Beach (2%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Port St. Joe walkable?
Port St. Joe is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.9 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Port St. Joe without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Port St. Joe, from the people who make the trip.
More of Port St. Joe
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.