Elim · Photo: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.2 jobs for every working resident, most of Bethel works elsewhere
Home is the office for 3% of workers, next to 13% for Missouri as a whole. Employers in Bethel report 7 jobs; 41 of its residents have a job. Hardly any work in Bethel; the top destination outside it is Shelbyville (12%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Bethel quiets down on a workday
On a workday 41 residents head out to work, none work right here, and 7 people come in from elsewhere.
About 92 people are in Bethel on a workday afternoon, 27% 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.
The places Bethel commutes to
Where Bethel 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.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Bethel
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bethel, 2013 → 2023: 19 → 7. 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 Bethel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Bethel takes 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 Bethel workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 74 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Missouri: 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.
Bethel’s commute, mile by mile
About 24% 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 Bethel: questions
What is the median household income in Bethel?
$65,938 (±$13,669) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bethel?
10.3%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bethel?
22 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bethel work?
0% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Shelbyville (12%, 5 mi), Shelbina (10%, 13 mi), Hannibal (7%, 35 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Bethel without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bethel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bethel
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.