Work, pay and getting to work in Pine Knot
Getting around Pine Knot on foot earns D. 52.9% of residents are in poverty, next to 16.1% for Kentucky as a whole. Working residents average 21 minutes each way; Kentucky averages 24, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Pine Knot
Pine Knot has added jobs fast
Jobs based in Pine Knot went from 306 in 2013 to 486 in 2023, +59%. The jobs ↓
The jobs in Pine Knot pay better than its residents’ jobs
55% of the jobs based in Pine Knot pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 39% of the jobs Pine Knot residents hold. 95% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Pine Knot. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% 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 ↓
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 387 working residents, small shifts move the shares; a jump in jobs can partly be a big employer changing how it reports its locations.
Pine Knot is a services town
486 jobs are based in Pine Knot.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pine Knot, 2013 → 2023: 306 → 486. 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 Pine Knot’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Pine Knot commutes
About 30% 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.
The daily commute in and out of Pine Knot
On a workday 363 residents head out to work, 24 work right here, and 462 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 (1.26 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
10% of working residents work in Stearns
Where Pine Knot clocks in
10% of workers
9% of workers
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.
Pine Knot’s commute takes about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pine Knot workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 211 commuters (the 12% 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.
The commute in Pine Knot is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pine Knot is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.1% across Kentucky.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 240 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). 45.6% of Pine Knot households have no vehicle (Kentucky 6.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pine Knot’s commuters take a bus or train.
10% of Pine Knot works in a bordering town
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Stearns. Darker towns draw more of Pine Knot’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Pine Knot: questions
What is the poverty rate in Pine Knot?
52.9%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pine Knot?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pine Knot work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stearns (10%, 3 mi), Somerset (9%, 30 mi), Whitley City (8%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pine Knot walkable?
Pine Knot is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pine Knot without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 46% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pine Knot, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pine Knot
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.