Goodman has 0.2 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Jobs and income earn Goodman D; getting around on foot earns it B. Goodman has 97 jobs, and 472 of its residents work somewhere. Measured by household income, Goodman is behind 82% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Goodman and work: the main findings
Fewer jobs are based in Goodman than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Goodman fell from 556 in 2013 to 97 in 2023, −83%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
Goodman is a place people come home to
There are 97 jobs based in Goodman, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Goodman has about 950 people in it, 28% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Goodman and Neosho trade workers both ways
Neosho is the top workplace for Goodman residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Goodman come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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 472 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Goodman: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Goodman is better than 14% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Goodman’s grade.
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Goodman’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Goodman could be anywhere from D to C+.
What Goodman’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Goodman, 2013 → 2023: 556 → 97. 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 Goodman’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Goodman
On a workday 463 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 88 people come in from elsewhere.
About 950 people are in Goodman on a workday afternoon, 28% 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.
16% of working residents work in Neosho
Where Goodman clocks in
16% of workers
14% 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.
About 27 minutes each way for Goodman’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Goodman workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 413 commuters (the 11% 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.
Miles to work from Goodman
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.
The commute in Goodman is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Goodman is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.2% across Missouri, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 464 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). 6.9% of Goodman households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Goodman’s commuters take a bus or train.
Goodman next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800: 4,124th of 5,400 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 38 | Loch Lloyd MO | 1,090 | $184K | 2.5% | 0.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 91 | LaBarque Creek MO | 1,457 | $133K | 1.1% | 1.7% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 119 | Fremont Hills MO | 1,098 | $171K | 3.9% | 1.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,122 | Homer MI | 1,603 | $55K | 18.7% | 5.9% | 14% | D |
| 4,123 | Cassopolis MI | 1,707 | $41K | 20.5% | 7.3% | 8% | D |
| 4,124 | Goodman MO | 1,320 | $54K | 16.5% | 3.7% | 2% | D |
| 4,125 | Eugene Township IN | 1,712 | $57K | 15.0% | 4.3% | 6% | D |
| 4,126 | Fields Creek Township MO | 1,772 | $43K | 10.8% | 4.3% | 23% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Goodman, the top three, the last and three more from Missouri.
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 Goodman: questions
What is the median household income in Goodman?
$54,250 (±$12,149) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Goodman?
16.5%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Goodman?
27 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Goodman work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Neosho (16%, 8 mi), Joplin (14%, 24 mi), Noel (6%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Goodman walkable?
Goodman is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Goodman without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Goodman, from the people who make the trip.
More of Goodman
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.