Gray, William R., Photography Studio and Residence · Photo: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 4.0Jobs, income and commuting in St. John, KS
About one in five work in St. John itself; outside it, Wichita draws the most (7%, 80 miles). Jobs and income earn St. John C−; getting around on foot earns it B−. Home is the office for 1% of workers; Kansas has 12%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in St. John, in brief
A big share show a job far from home
31% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Fewer than half of St. John workers earn over $40,000 a year
44% of St. John’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 22% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Few St. John workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 12% across Kansas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 546 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How St. John earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, St. John is better than 23% of U.S. towns. Household income holds St. John’s grade up ($73,929, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down.
Unemployment (1.9%) is left out: St. John’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, St. John could be anywhere from D to C+.
The commute from St. John, by distance
About 31% 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.
Jobs in St. John: what the 382 are
382 jobs are based in St. John.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in St. John, 2013 → 2023: 406 → 382. 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 St. John’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from St. John: about 22 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of St. John workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 600 commuters (the 1% 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.
St. John quiets down on a workday
On a workday 439 residents head out to work, 107 work right here, and 275 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in St. John on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.70 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
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 St. John work
Where St. John clocks in
7% of workers
7% 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 commute in St. John is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, St. John is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.2% 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 607 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). 1.4% of St. John households have no vehicle (Kansas 5.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of St. John’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, St. John is 2,768th of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Lake Quivira KS | 1,005 | $178K | 3.8% | 0.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Lexington Township KS | 1,512 | $135K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 85 | Delaware Township KS | 1,121 | $119K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,766 | Concord Township PA | 1,354 | $65K | 15.4% | 4.5% | 1% | C− |
| 2,767 | Ashland Township PA | 1,092 | $79K | 16.4% | 0.6% | <1% | C− |
| 2,768 | St. John KS | 1,200 | $74K | 12.1% | 1.9% | 20% | C− |
| 2,769 | Hico TX | 1,496 | $68K | 11.5% | 2.6% | 16% | C− |
| 2,770 | Denmark ME | 1,253 | $64K | 8.9% | 2.7% | 5% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 St. John, 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 St. John: questions
What is the median household income in St. John?
$73,929 (±$11,607) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in St. John?
12.1%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from St. John?
22 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in St. John work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Wichita (7%, 80 mi), Great Bend (7%, 25 mi), Macksville (6%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is St. John walkable?
St. John is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around St. John without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from St. John, from the people who make the trip.
More of St. John
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.