Ensign has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
Commuters spend 30 minutes getting to work on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. Employers in Ensign report 15 jobs for 60 working residents. Hardly any stay in Ensign for work; outside it, Montezuma is the main destination (8%, 13 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The workday shuffle in and out of Ensign
On a workday 60 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 15 people come in from elsewhere.
About 120 people are in Ensign on a workday afternoon, 28% 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 people from Ensign work
Where Ensign clocks in
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.
What Ensign’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ensign, 2013 → 2023: 560 → 15. 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 Ensign’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Ensign spends getting to work: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ensign workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 67 commuters (the 9% 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.
How far Ensign goes to work
About 41% 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 Ensign: questions
What is the median household income in Ensign?
$100,750 (±$23,336) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ensign?
0.8%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ensign?
30 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ensign work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Montezuma (8%, 13 mi), Liberal (8%, 57 mi), Copeland Township (7%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Ensign without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ensign, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ensign
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.