Photo: Paltron · CC BY-SA 4.0Most of Arma commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
Measured by household income, Arma is behind 87% of U.S. towns. 293 jobs are based in Arma, and 592 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Arma is better than 18% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (C).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Arma
The figures behind Arma’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Arma’s grade up (12.4%, U.S. 12.5%); household income pulls it down ($50,795, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (10.0%) is left out: Arma’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, Arma could be anywhere from D to C+.
30% of working residents work in Pittsburg
Where Arma clocks in
30% of workers
8% 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.
Who commutes out of Arma, and who commutes in
On a workday 556 residents head out to work, 36 work right here, and 257 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Arma on a workday afternoon, 21% 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.
Arma is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Arma, 2013 → 2023: 225 → 293. 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 Arma’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Arma: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Arma workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 598 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across Kansas: 85% 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 in the region Arma works
About 21% 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.
Getting around Arma: mostly by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 631 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). 5.8% of Arma households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Arma’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Arma ranks: 4,223rd of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 57 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 73 | Westwood KS | 1,720 | $118K | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,221 | Florence Township MI | 1,142 | $63K | 23.9% | 3.3% | 1% | C− |
| 4,222 | New Pekin IN | 1,378 | $51K | 19.5% | 1.7% | <1% | C− |
| 4,223 | Arma KS | 1,398 | $51K | 12.4% | 10.0% | 6% | C− |
| 4,224 | Breckenridge MI | 1,265 | $58K | 18.0% | 7.5% | 8% | C− |
| 4,225 | Thompson Falls MT | 1,543 | $46K | 6.5% | 0.0% | 25% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Arma, the top three, the last and three more from Kansas.
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 Arma: questions
What is the median household income in Arma?
$50,795 (±$14,694) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Arma?
12.4%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Arma?
22 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Arma work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pittsburg (30%, 9 mi), Girard (8%, 8 mi), Frontenac (6%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Arma walkable?
Arma is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Arma 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 Arma, from the people who make the trip.
More of Arma
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.