Photo: Nyttend · Public domainWith 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Ledbetter works elsewhere
Only 4% stay in Ledbetter for work; outside it, Paducah is the main destination (31%, 8 miles). 398 jobs are based in Ledbetter for 749 working residents. For jobs and income Ledbetter is better than 16% of U.S. towns (C−); for walkability it is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (D).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Ledbetter apart on work
Ledbetter and Paducah trade workers both ways
Paducah is the top workplace for Ledbetter residents (31%) and also where the most people who work in Ledbetter come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
42% of the jobs in Ledbetter are in trade, transport and utilities, against 21% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
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 749 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Ledbetter
Job access by car holds Ledbetter’s grade up (ahead of 44% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (27.7%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (9.8%) is left out: Ledbetter’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, Ledbetter could be anywhere from D to C.
The places Ledbetter commutes to
Where Ledbetter clocks in
31% of workers
7% of workers
5% 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 kinds of work in Ledbetter
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ledbetter, 2013 → 2023: 415 → 398. 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 Ledbetter’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Ledbetter: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 718 residents head out to work, 31 work right here, and 367 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Ledbetter on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
From Ledbetter, about 25 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ledbetter workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 721 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Kentucky: 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.
Miles to work from Ledbetter
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 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
For most of Ledbetter, work means a drive
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.1% across Kentucky, on an EPA index of 4.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 765 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). 0.0% of Ledbetter households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ledbetter’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ledbetter next to U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400: 4,635th of 6,085 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Pewee Valley KY | 1,668 | $157K | 3.0% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 63 | Audubon Park KY | 1,457 | $101K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 106 | Coldstream KY | 1,325 | $109K | 2.8% | 0.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,633 | Parks Township PA | 2,388 | $67K | 24.3% | 9.0% | 6% | C− |
| 4,634 | Ocklawaha FL | 1,586 | $38K | 13.3% | 13.5% | 1% | C− |
| 4,635 | Ledbetter KY | 1,785 | $60K | 27.7% | 9.8% | 4% | C− |
| 4,636 | Daniels WV | 1,489 | $60K | 24.2% | 3.9% | 3% | C− |
| 4,637 | Vincent AL | 2,045 | $53K | 21.7% | 10.5% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Ledbetter, the top three, the last and three more from Kentucky.
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 Ledbetter: questions
What is the median household income in Ledbetter?
$59,899 (±$15,081) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,726 across Kentucky and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ledbetter?
27.7%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ledbetter?
25 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ledbetter work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Paducah (31%, 8 mi), Smithland (7%, 8 mi), Calvert City (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ledbetter walkable?
Ledbetter is more walkable than 12% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ledbetter without a car?
1% 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 Ledbetter, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ledbetter
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.