Cherokee has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
A typical one-way commute lasts 18 minutes (Kansas 20, U.S. 26). 35 jobs are based in Cherokee for 224 working residents. Hardly any stay in Cherokee for work; outside it, Pittsburg is the main destination (22%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Cherokee in brief
How a workday changes Cherokee
On a workday 222 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 33 people come in from elsewhere.
About 410 people are in Cherokee on a workday afternoon, 32% 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.
Where Cherokee goes to work
Where Cherokee clocks in
22% of workers
11% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cherokee, 2013 → 2023: 107 → 35. 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 Cherokee’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 18 minutes from Cherokee
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cherokee workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 299 commuters (the 8% 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.
The distance from Cherokee to work
About 19% 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.
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 Cherokee: questions
What is the median household income in Cherokee?
$56,154 (±$11,028) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cherokee?
8.0%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cherokee?
18 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cherokee work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Pittsburg (22%, 8 mi), Girard (11%, 11 mi), Parsons (11%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Cherokee without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cherokee, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cherokee
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.