Photo: ShadZ01 · CC BY-SA 4.0St. Joseph has 1.9 jobs for every working resident: 5,577 people commute in to work
About one in seven stay in St. Joseph for work; outside it, Benton Township is the main destination (20%, 5 miles). 6,090 jobs are based in St. Joseph, and 3,220 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn St. Joseph A−; getting around on foot earns it A.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2021, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in St. Joseph, in brief
Why St. Joseph gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, St. Joseph is better than 77% of U.S. towns, #178 of 701 in Michigan. Unemployment is its strongest input (2.0%, U.S. 5.2%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 61% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate and job access by car.
The commuting and job counts on this page are Census LEHD 2021: Michigan reports later than other states, so its newest year is two years behind.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, St. Joseph could be anywhere from B to A.
How many people are in St. Joseph by day
On a workday 2,707 residents head out to work and 513 work right here.
About 11,000 people are in St. Joseph on a workday afternoon, 36% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2021, primary jobs.
Where the people who work in St. Joseph live
Where St. Joseph clocks in
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.
What St. Joseph’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in St. Joseph, 2011 → 2021: 7,817 → 6,090. 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 2021.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs St. Joseph’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from St. Joseph: about 20 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of St. Joseph workers work from home, vs 14% across Michigan. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,510 commuters (the 16% who work from home are left out). Across Michigan: 86% 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.
St. Joseph’s commute, mile by mile
About 22% 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 2021.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
St. Joseph is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, St. Joseph is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #28 of 701 in Michigan. Both inputs place St. Joseph near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,160 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). 5.7% of St. Joseph households have no vehicle (Michigan 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of St. Joseph’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, St. Joseph is 898th among 3,069 U.S. towns of 5,500 to 10,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Grosse Pointe Farms MI | 9,735 | $161K | 2.5% | 1.9% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 896 | Dacula GA | 9,373 | $101K | 6.6% | 4.8% | 2% | A− |
| 897 | Oak Brook IL | 8,108 | $176K | 6.6% | 10.0% | 7% | A− |
| 898 | St. Joseph MI | 7,893 | $84K | 7.3% | 2.0% | 16% | A− |
| 899 | Hamptonburgh NY | 5,523 | $122K | 7.4% | 4.0% | 6% | A− |
| 900 | Duvall WA | 9,440 | $197K | 12.8% | 2.5% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,069 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 St. Joseph, the top three, the last and three more from Michigan.
The towns next door employ 11% of St. Joseph
The biggest share goes to St. Joseph Township (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | St. Joseph workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Joseph | – | A− | A | 20 min | $84,057 |
| St. Joseph Township | 7% | B− | B | 19 min | $94,926 |
| Benton Harbor | 4% | D | A− | 18 min | $31,117 |
| Fair Plain | under 2% | — | — | 20 min | — |
| Shoreham | under 2% | — | — | 17 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Fair Plain: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Shoreham: not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of St. Joseph’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 2021, 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 St. Joseph: questions
What is the median household income in St. Joseph?
$84,057 (±$10,797) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,875 across Michigan and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in St. Joseph?
7.3%, against 13.2% across Michigan and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from St. Joseph?
20 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Michigan and 26 nationally. 16% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in St. Joseph work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Benton Township (20%, 5 mi), St. Joseph Township (7%, 2 mi), Lincoln Township (5%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2021).
Is St. Joseph walkable?
St. Joseph is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.5 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around St. Joseph without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from St. Joseph, from the people who make the trip.
More of St. Joseph
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2021, 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.