Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Jonesboro trail those of 95% of U.S. towns
About one in five work in Jonesboro itself; outside it, Ruston draws the most (10%, 21 miles). Below the poverty line: 35.1% of residents; Louisiana has 18.9%. The two grades for Jonesboro are D− for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Jonesboro in brief
Jonesboro trades workers with the towns around it
Jonesboro has about as many jobs (1,630) as working residents (1,421), but they are mostly different people: 1,101 residents leave for work each day while 1,310 people come in. Only 20% of the jobs in Jonesboro are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Jonesboro are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 26 across Louisiana. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Louisiana worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Jonesboro workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Jonesboro’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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.
How Jonesboro earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Jonesboro is better than 4% of U.S. towns, #143 of 161 in Louisiana. Unemployment holds Jonesboro’s grade up (6.4%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Jonesboro could be anywhere from D− to C.
In and out of Jonesboro on a workday
On a workday 1,101 residents head out to work, 320 work right here, and 1,310 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 (1.15 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.
From Jonesboro, about 18 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Jonesboro workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,167 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Louisiana: 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Jonesboro
1,630 jobs are based in Jonesboro.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Jonesboro, 2013 → 2023: 1,332 → 1,630. 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 Jonesboro’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The places Jonesboro commutes to
Where Jonesboro clocks in
10% of workers
6% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Jonesboro
About 23% 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.
Few in Jonesboro walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Jonesboro is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns, #140 of 161 in Louisiana. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.3% across Louisiana.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,264 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). 24.7% of Jonesboro households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Jonesboro’s commuters take a bus or train.
Jonesboro next to U.S. towns of 3,000 to 5,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 296 | Hahnville LA | 3,520 | $101K | 6.7% | 0.0% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 900 | Greenwood LA | 3,077 | $64K | 3.7% | 1.3% | 4% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,322 | Westlake LA | 4,763 | $68K | 12.1% | 0.0% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,808 | Bolivar TN | 5,043 | $39K | 21.7% | 13.2% | 27% | D− |
| 3,809 | Mojave CA | 5,173 | $56K | 25.5% | 17.8% | 20% | D− |
| 3,810 | Jonesboro LA | 4,252 | $42K | 35.1% | 6.4% | 23% | D− |
| 3,811 | Wallace NC | 3,570 | $51K | 30.4% | 8.7% | 10% | D− |
| 3,812 | Spindale NC | 4,180 | $41K | 21.8% | 12.6% | 6% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,962 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Jonesboro, the top three, the last and three more from Louisiana.
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 Jonesboro: questions
What is the median household income in Jonesboro?
$41,786 (±$9,705) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Jonesboro?
35.1%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Jonesboro?
18 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Jonesboro work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ruston (10%, 21 mi), Monroe (6%, 42 mi), East Hodge (4%, 3 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Jonesboro walkable?
Jonesboro is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Jonesboro without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 25% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Jonesboro, from the people who make the trip.
More of Jonesboro
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.