Photo: Nyttend · Public domainWheelwright has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
Working from home is the commute for 0% of workers, where Kentucky as a whole has 10%. Employers in Wheelwright report 34 jobs, against 102 working residents. Hardly any stay in Wheelwright for work; outside it, Prestonsburg is the main destination (14%, 24 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How a workday changes Wheelwright
On a workday 102 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 34 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.
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 Wheelwright goes to work
Where Wheelwright clocks in
14% 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.
Jobs in Wheelwright: what the 34 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wheelwright, 2013 → 2023: 48 → 34. 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 Wheelwright’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 36 minutes from Wheelwright
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wheelwright workers work from home, vs 10% across Kentucky. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 180 commuters (the 0% 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 distance from Wheelwright to work
About 36% 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 Wheelwright: questions
What is the poverty rate in Wheelwright?
40.7%, against 16.1% across Kentucky and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wheelwright?
36 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Kentucky and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wheelwright work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Prestonsburg (14%, 24 mi), Pikeville (8%, 14 mi), Lexington (6%, 107 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Wheelwright without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wheelwright, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wheelwright
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.