Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri · CC BY 3.0Good Thunder has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
62 jobs are based in Good Thunder, against 278 working residents. Only 2% stay in Good Thunder for work; outside it, Mankato is the main destination (31%, 12 miles). Home is the office for 7% of workers, where Minnesota as a whole has 18%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Good Thunder in brief
Good Thunder is a place people come home to
There are 62 jobs based in Good Thunder, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Good Thunder has about 320 people in it, 40% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
31% of Good Thunder works in Mankato
85 working residents, 31%, have their main job in Mankato, 12 miles away. That’s 16 times as many as work in Good Thunder itself. The commute map ↓
Good Thunder workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 31 minutes each way, against 23 across Minnesota. Over a year that’s about 238 hours of commuting, 61 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 278 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How many people are in Good Thunder by day
On a workday 273 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 57 people come in from elsewhere.
About 320 people are in Good Thunder on a workday afternoon, 40% 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.
Where Good Thunder goes to work
Where Good Thunder clocks in
31% 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.
Time on the road from Good Thunder: about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Good Thunder workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 236 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Minnesota: 84% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
What Good Thunder’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Good Thunder, 2013 → 2023: 27 → 62. 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 Good Thunder’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Good Thunder commutes
About 20% 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 Good Thunder: questions
What is the median household income in Good Thunder?
$81,667 (±$22,244) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Good Thunder?
7.9%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Good Thunder?
31 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Good Thunder work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mankato (31%, 12 mi), North Mankato (8%, 12 mi), Amboy (4%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Good Thunder without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Good Thunder, from the people who make the trip.
More of Good Thunder
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.