Photo: Jatakuck · CC BY-SA 3.0St. James has higher unemployment (7.9%) than 88% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn St. James D; getting around on foot earns it A−. 5% of workers work from home, where Minnesota as a whole has 18%. About two in five work in St. James; the top destination outside it is Madelia (6%, 11 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where St. James stands out on work
Income, poverty and work: St. James’ grade explained
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, St. James is better than 11% of U.S. towns, #266 of 273 in Minnesota. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides St. James’ grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, St. James could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Goods, not services: 41% of the jobs in St. James
1,866 jobs are based in St. James.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in St. James, 2013 → 2023: 2,349 → 1,866. 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 St. James’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of St. James
On a workday 1,189 residents head out to work, 799 work right here, and 1,067 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 (0.94 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.
Commuting out of St. James: the destinations
Where St. James clocks in
5% of workers
4% 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.
A commute of about 22 minutes in St. James
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of St. James workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,852 commuters (the 5% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from St. James
About 18% 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.
St. James is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, St. James is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns, #57 of 273 in Minnesota. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 8.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 8.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,945 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). 13.2% of St. James households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of St. James’ commuters take a bus or train.
How St. James compares with U.S. towns of 3,400 to 6,600
| # | 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 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Independence MN | 3,763 | $187K | 1.1% | 0.8% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Deephaven MN | 3,794 | $198K | 1.7% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 20 | Elko New Market MN | 5,300 | $152K | 1.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,502 | Granger WA | 3,831 | $66K | 23.3% | 15.8% | 6% | D |
| 3,503 | Manistee MI | 6,157 | $61K | 16.8% | 6.7% | 21% | D |
| 3,504 | St. James MN | 4,863 | $60K | 18.0% | 7.9% | 40% | D |
| 3,505 | Uhrichsville OH | 5,145 | $42K | 26.0% | 7.2% | 13% | D |
| 3,506 | Gilmer TX | 5,287 | $44K | 18.3% | 8.9% | 19% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,840 | 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 St. James, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
Next door to St. James
The biggest share goes to Rosendale Township (1%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | St. James workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. James | – | D | A− | 22 min | $60,242 |
| St. James Township | under 2% | — | — | 15 min | — |
| Rosendale Township | 1% | — | — | 23 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. St. James Township and Rosendale Township: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of St. James’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 St. James: questions
What is the median household income in St. James?
$60,242 (±$7,440) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in St. James?
18.0%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from St. James?
22 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in St. James work?
40% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Madelia (6%, 11 mi), Mankato (5%, 35 mi), New Ulm (4%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is St. James walkable?
St. James is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 8.0 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around St. James without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from St. James, from the people who make the trip.
More of St. James
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.