Photo: User:Onemessedzebra · Public domainSt. Joseph has lower unemployment (0.9%) than 95% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn St. Joseph A; getting around on foot earns it B−. Household incomes here are higher than in 88% of U.S. towns. About one in ten work in St. Joseph itself; outside it, Champaign draws the most (28%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in St. Joseph, in a few figures
The better-paid jobs are outside St. Joseph
65% of St. Joseph residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 40% of the jobs based in St. Joseph pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 91% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
28% of St. Joseph works in Champaign
464 working residents, 28%, have their main job in Champaign, 13 miles away. That’s 3 times as many as work in St. Joseph itself. The commute map ↓
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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in St. Joseph
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, St. Joseph is better than 94% of U.S. towns, #70 of 768 in Illinois. Unemployment is its strongest input; job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 58% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, St. Joseph could be anywhere from A− to A+.
St. Joseph is a services town
494 jobs are based in St. Joseph.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in St. Joseph, 2013 → 2023: 499 → 494. 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 St. Joseph’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where people from St. Joseph work
Where St. Joseph clocks in
28% of workers
22% of workers
4% 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 workday shuffle in and out of St. Joseph
On a workday 1,519 residents head out to work, 143 work right here, and 351 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,500 people are in St. Joseph on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer than live here.
0.30 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 2023, primary jobs.
The daily trip from St. Joseph: about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of St. Joseph workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,713 commuters (the 17% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from St. Joseph
About 22% 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.
For most of St. Joseph, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, St. Joseph is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns, #542 of 768 in Illinois. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 10.8% across Illinois.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,068 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). 2.8% of St. Joseph households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of St. Joseph’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, St. Joseph is 269th of 4,318 U.S. towns of 2,600 to 5,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Deer Park IL | 3,647 | $174K | 1.3% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 98 | Lakewood IL | 4,293 | $174K | 3.5% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 267 | Taylor Creek OH | 4,253 | $99K | 3.7% | 2.2% | 2% | A |
| 268 | Chico WA | 3,336 | $141K | 1.7% | 0.9% | 1% | A |
| 269 | St. Joseph IL | 3,689 | $121K | 4.1% | 0.9% | 9% | A |
| 270 | Millville MA | 3,186 | $127K | 4.6% | 3.0% | 3% | A |
| 271 | Cranbury Township NJ | 4,240 | $217K | 3.6% | 4.1% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,318 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 St. Joseph, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
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 St. Joseph: questions
What is the median household income in St. Joseph?
$120,789 (±$32,042) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in St. Joseph?
4.1%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from St. Joseph?
25 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 17% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in St. Joseph work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Champaign (28%, 13 mi), Urbana (22%, 9 mi), Chicago (4%, 120 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is St. Joseph walkable?
St. Joseph is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around St. Joseph without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from St. Joseph, from the people who make the trip.
More of St. Joseph
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.