Photo: Americasroof · CC BY-SA 3.0Jobs, pay and the trip to work in Forest City
Commuters spend 23 minutes getting to work on average, where Missouri has 24 and the U.S. 26. For 2% of workers, the job is at home; Missouri has 13%. About one in ten work in Forest City itself; outside it, St. Joseph draws the most (25%, 25 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How a workday changes Forest City
On a workday 99 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 91 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 (0.93 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.
Where people from Forest City work
Where Forest City clocks in
25% of workers
14% 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.
Forest City makes things: 45% of its jobs are in goods
100 jobs are based in Forest City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Forest City, 2013 → 2023: 20 → 100. 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 Forest City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes to work from Forest City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Forest City workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 92 commuters (the 2% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Forest City
About 23% 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 Forest City: questions
What is the median household income in Forest City?
$46,875 (±$11,017) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Forest City?
17.6%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Forest City?
23 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Forest City work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are St. Joseph (25%, 25 mi), Oregon (14%, 2 mi), Mound City (4%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Forest City 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 Forest City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Forest City
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.