Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans · CC BY-SA 3.0Poydras has 0.1 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Employers in Poydras report 129 jobs, and 946 of its residents work somewhere. Poydras grades C for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 75% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Poydras, in brief
Poydras is a place people come home to
There are 129 jobs based in Poydras, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Poydras has about 1,400 people in it, 36% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Poydras workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 40 minutes each way, against 26 across Louisiana. Over a year that’s about 307 hours of commuting, 107 more than the state’s typical worker. 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 946 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Poydras’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Poydras is better than 30% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Poydras’ grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (24.3%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Poydras’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, Poydras could be anywhere from C− to B−.
A workday in Poydras: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 918 residents head out to work, 28 work right here, and 101 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Poydras on a workday afternoon, 36% 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.
How long Poydras spends getting to work: about 40 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Poydras workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 674 commuters (the 6% 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.
22% of working residents work in New Orleans
Where Poydras clocks in
22% of workers
20% 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 kinds of work in Poydras
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Poydras, 2013 → 2023: 155 → 129. 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 Poydras’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Poydras commutes
About 16% 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.
Most trips from Poydras start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Poydras is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Louisiana, on an EPA index of 3.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 719 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 12.6% of Poydras households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Poydras’ commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,328 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100, Poydras comes 3,442nd on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 41 | Bayou Gauche LA | 1,908 | $163K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 274 | Montz LA | 2,074 | $92K | 4.7% | 0.2% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 420 | Des Allemands LA | 2,382 | $88K | 2.4% | 2.5% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,440 | Goldthwaite TX | 1,774 | $55K | 4.7% | 4.4% | 30% | C |
| 3,441 | Denmark NY | 2,619 | $63K | 16.7% | 2.2% | 5% | C |
| 3,442 | Poydras LA | 2,260 | $59K | 24.3% | 1.3% | 3% | C |
| 3,443 | Prescott AR | 2,949 | $48K | 20.9% | 0.0% | 34% | C |
| 3,444 | Madison NE | 2,162 | $63K | 15.0% | 3.9% | 9% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Poydras, the top three, the last and three more from Louisiana.
The towns next door employ 22% of Poydras
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Poydras workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poydras | – | C | C+ | 40 min | $59,105 |
| New Orleans | 22% | C | A+ | 23 min | $56,631 |
| Violet | under 2% | C− | C+ | 35 min | $51,038 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to New Orleans. Darker towns draw more of Poydras’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 Poydras: questions
What is the median household income in Poydras?
$59,105 (±$10,954) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Poydras?
24.3%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Poydras?
40 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Poydras work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New Orleans (22%, 14 mi), Chalmette (20%, 8 mi), Metairie (7%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Poydras walkable?
Poydras is more walkable than 36% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 3.9 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Poydras without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Poydras, from the people who make the trip.
More of Poydras
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.