Photo: TheWhitePelican · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Seneca trail those of 92% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Seneca are D for jobs and income and C− for walkability. 21.4% of residents live below the poverty line; Missouri has 12.6%. About one in ten work in Seneca itself; outside it, Joplin draws the most (25%, 17 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 Seneca
Jobs & income in Seneca: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Seneca is better than 6% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Seneca’s grade.
Unemployment (0.8%) is left out: Seneca’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, Seneca could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Services make up most of the work in Seneca
559 jobs are based in Seneca.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Seneca, 2013 → 2023: 1,295 → 559. 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 Seneca’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily flow of workers through Seneca
On a workday 768 residents head out to work, 83 work right here, and 476 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,100 people are in Seneca on a workday afternoon, 12% fewer than live here.
0.66 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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 Seneca’s working residents head each day
Where Seneca clocks in
25% of workers
9% of workers
5% 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 23 minutes to work from Seneca
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Seneca workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 663 commuters (the 7% 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.
Half of Seneca commutes less than 17 miles
About 19% 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 Seneca start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Seneca is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Seneca near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 714 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). 5.9% of Seneca households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Seneca’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,200, and where Seneca sits
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Warson Woods MO | 1,990 | $207K | 1.3% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Weatherby Lake MO | 2,139 | $153K | 3.4% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 54 | Lake Winnebago MO | 1,869 | $179K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,086 | Monon IN | 1,957 | $49K | 23.7% | 4.8% | 13% | D |
| 5,087 | Caney KS | 1,704 | $39K | 17.4% | 6.9% | 30% | D |
| 5,088 | Seneca MO | 2,343 | $46K | 21.4% | 0.8% | 10% | D |
| 5,089 | Willow Springs MO | 2,211 | $41K | 20.5% | 6.0% | 20% | D |
| 5,090 | Westfield NY | 2,888 | $47K | 15.3% | 11.7% | 22% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,552 | 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 Seneca, 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 Seneca: questions
What is the median household income in Seneca?
$46,023 (±$9,517) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Seneca?
21.4%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Seneca?
23 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Seneca work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Joplin (25%, 17 mi), Neosho (9%, 13 mi), Springfield (5%, 77 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Seneca walkable?
Seneca is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.8 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Seneca without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Seneca, from the people who make the trip.
More of Seneca
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.