St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church and Rectory · Photo: TheCatalyst31 · CC0Work means Jefferson City for about half of Taos’ working residents
Jobs and income earn Taos A−; getting around on foot earns it C+. Measured by household income, Taos is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns. Poverty touches 2.5% of residents; Missouri has 12.6%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Taos
More than half of Taos works in Jefferson City
212 working residents, 50%, have their main job in Jefferson City, 6.5 miles away across the town line. That’s 50 times as many as work in Taos itself. The commute map ↓
Taos is a place people come home to
There are 79 jobs based in Taos, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Taos has about 830 people in it, 29% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
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 424 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Taos’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Taos is better than 83% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Taos’ grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 46% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.1%) is left out: Taos’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, Taos could be anywhere from B+ to A.
The places Taos commutes to
Where Taos clocks in
50% of workers
7% of workers
3% 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.
How many people are in Taos by day
On a workday 421 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 76 people come in from elsewhere.
About 830 people are in Taos on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
0.19 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.
47% of the jobs in Taos make or build things
79 jobs are based in Taos.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Taos, 2013 → 2023: 137 → 79. 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 Taos’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Taos: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Taos workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 550 commuters (the 8% 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.
How far Taos goes to work
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.
Most of Taos commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Taos is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.2% across Missouri, on an EPA index of 4.6.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 601 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). 2.9% of Taos households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Taos’ commuters take a bus or train.
Taos next to U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600: 339th of 4,312 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 32 | Loch Lloyd MO | 1,090 | $184K | 2.5% | 0.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 72 | LaBarque Creek MO | 1,457 | $133K | 1.1% | 1.7% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 94 | Fremont Hills MO | 1,098 | $171K | 3.9% | 1.9% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 337 | Los Olivos CA | 1,038 | $143K | 3.0% | 3.8% | 12% | A− |
| 338 | Monroe WI | 1,276 | $107K | 1.8% | 1.0% | 2% | A− |
| 339 | Taos MO | 1,175 | $99K | 2.5% | 2.1% | 1% | A− |
| 340 | Adair Village OR | 1,010 | $99K | 3.6% | 4.4% | 1% | A− |
| 341 | Harrison Township IN | 1,400 | $100K | 3.1% | 6.6% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Taos, the top three, the last and three more from Missouri.
50% of Taos works in a town next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Taos workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taos | – | A− | C+ | 23 min | $98,854 |
| Jefferson City | 50% | B− | B+ | 16 min | $66,371 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Jefferson City. Darker towns draw more of Taos’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 Taos: questions
What is the median household income in Taos?
$98,854 (±$14,969) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Taos?
2.5%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Taos?
23 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Taos work?
1% work in town.
Is Taos walkable?
Taos is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.6 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Taos without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Taos, from the people who make the trip.
More of Taos
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.