Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri · CC BY 3.0Fewer people are out of work in Paynesville (2.4%) than in 79% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 6% of workers, against 18% across Minnesota. Paynesville grades B+ for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. About one in three work in Paynesville; the top destination outside it is St. Cloud (7%, 29 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Paynesville
What’s behind Paynesville’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Paynesville is better than 65% of U.S. towns, #164 of 273 in Minnesota. Unemployment holds Paynesville’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 34% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Paynesville could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Paynesville on a workday afternoon
On a workday 713 residents head out to work, 361 work right here, and 1,476 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,400 people are in Paynesville on a workday afternoon, 29% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
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 the people who work in Paynesville live
Where Paynesville clocks in
7% of workers
6% of workers
3% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 30% of the jobs in Paynesville
1,837 jobs are based in Paynesville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Paynesville, 2013 → 2023: 1,625 → 1,837. 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 Paynesville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Paynesville: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Paynesville workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,119 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.
Paynesville’s commute, mile by mile
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.
Most trips from Paynesville start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Paynesville is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns, #119 of 273 in Minnesota. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 7.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,197 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). 6.9% of Paynesville households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Paynesville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Paynesville is 1,481st of 5,083 U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,500 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Greenfield MN | 2,962 | $154K | 1.2% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Empire MN | 3,063 | $148K | 1.9% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | May Township MN | 2,638 | $137K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,479 | Hopkins Township MI | 2,754 | $89K | 14.5% | 2.6% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,480 | Allyn WA | 2,404 | $98K | 1.4% | 6.6% | 2% | B+ |
| 1,481 | Paynesville MN | 2,591 | $75K | 5.6% | 2.4% | 34% | B+ |
| 1,482 | Palmyra NY | 3,257 | $65K | 10.4% | 0.7% | 6% | B+ |
| 1,483 | St. George ME | 2,595 | $89K | 7.7% | 0.0% | 22% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,083 | 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 Paynesville, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
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 Paynesville: questions
What is the median household income in Paynesville?
$75,250 (±$14,663) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Paynesville?
5.6%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Paynesville?
22 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Paynesville work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. Cloud (7%, 29 mi), Paynesville Township (6%, 2 mi), Cold Spring (3%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Paynesville walkable?
Paynesville is more walkable than 74% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.2 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Paynesville without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Paynesville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Paynesville
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.