Photo: Ammodramus · Public domainWork, pay and getting to work in Johnson City
Home is the office for 4% of workers; Kansas has 12%. Jobs and income earn Johnson City B−; getting around on foot earns it B. About one in three work in Johnson City itself; outside it, Big Bow draws the most (11%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Johnson City stands out on work
The figures behind Johnson City’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Johnson City is better than 47% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Johnson City’s grade up (1.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Johnson City’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, Johnson City could be anywhere from C+ to B−.
About 11 minutes to work from Johnson City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Johnson City workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 775 commuters (the 4% 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.
Who commutes out of Johnson City, and who commutes in
On a workday 350 residents head out to work, 158 work right here, and 286 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 (0.87 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 people from Johnson City work
Where Johnson City clocks in
3% 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 444 jobs based in Johnson City
444 jobs are based in Johnson City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Johnson City, 2014 → 2024: 506 → 444. 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 Johnson City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Johnson City to work
About 26% 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.
Most of Johnson City commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Johnson City is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.4% across Kansas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 808 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). 6.2% of Johnson City households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Johnson City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Johnson City comes 2,195th on jobs and income
| # | 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% | 2% | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,193 | Cassville WV | 1,149 | $90K | 15.1% | 0.0% | <1% | B− |
| 2,194 | Gardner IL | 1,366 | $88K | 16.1% | 13.5% | 3% | B− |
| 2,195 | Johnson City KS | 1,402 | $71K | 1.7% | 1.3% | 31% | B− |
| 2,196 | Garfield Township IL | 1,452 | $88K | 16.0% | 12.8% | 3% | B− |
| 2,197 | Brandywine Township IN | 1,877 | $67K | 10.0% | 5.6% | 5% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Johnson City, 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 Johnson City: questions
What is the median household income in Johnson City?
$71,105 (±$3,003) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Johnson City?
1.7%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Johnson City?
11 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Johnson City work?
31% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Big Bow (11%, 10 mi), Ulysses (4%, 21 mi), Syracuse (3%, 27 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Johnson City walkable?
Johnson City is more walkable than 59% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 12.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Johnson City 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 Johnson City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Johnson City
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.