Photo: Unknown professional photographer paid by the Clay County Commissioners · CC BY-SA 4.0Clay Center has lower unemployment (1.1%) than 94% of U.S. towns
About half work in Clay Center; the top destination outside it is Manhattan (9%, 31 miles). Jobs and income earn Clay Center C+; getting around on foot earns it C. The average commute takes 20 minutes each way, next to 20 for Kansas and 26 for the U.S.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Clay Center: the figures worth knowing
Inside Clay Center’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Clay Center is better than 40% of U.S. towns, #100 of 151 in Kansas. Unemployment holds Clay Center’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 15% of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Clay Center could be anywhere from C− to B.
Clay Center’s commute, mile by mile
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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 987 residents head out to work, 838 work right here, and 1,154 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.09 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Where Clay Center’s working residents head each day
Where Clay Center clocks in
9% 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.
Jobs in Clay Center: what the 1,992 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clay Center, 2014 → 2024: 2,291 → 1,992. 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 Clay Center’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Clay Center: about 20 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clay Center workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,541 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.
For most of Clay Center, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Clay Center is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns, #111 of 151 in Kansas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,670 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). 8.2% of Clay Center households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Clay Center’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 4,283 U.S. towns of 2,800 to 5,500, Clay Center comes 2,623rd 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Fairway KS | 4,181 | $153K | 3.1% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Aubry Township KS | 4,719 | $134K | 0.7% | 1.2% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,621 | Slippery Rock PA | 3,551 | $52K | 33.8% | 5.6% | 8% | C+ |
| 2,622 | Schuyler NY | 3,263 | $65K | 7.8% | 6.2% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,623 | Clay Center KS | 4,061 | $63K | 13.1% | 1.1% | 46% | C+ |
| 2,624 | Danville PA | 4,101 | $59K | 14.0% | 3.7% | 10% | C+ |
| 2,625 | Oregon Township IN | 3,282 | $71K | 10.4% | 4.7% | 4% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,283 | 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 Clay Center, 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 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 Clay Center: questions
What is the median household income in Clay Center?
$62,695 (±$11,234) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clay Center?
13.1%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clay Center?
20 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clay Center work?
46% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Manhattan (9%, 31 mi), Topeka (4%, 80 mi), Salina (2%, 47 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Clay Center walkable?
Clay Center is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clay Center without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Clay Center, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clay Center
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.