Alma City Auditorium and Sale Barn · Photo: Ammodramus · CC0Earning a living in Alma
3% of workers have no commute at all, next to 11% for Nebraska as a whole. For jobs and income Alma is better than 46% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (B+). About one in four work in Alma; the top destination outside it is Holdrege (14%, 23 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Alma: the figures worth knowing
Alma’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Alma is Holdrege, 23 miles away as the crow flies. 14% of working residents (52) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Many jobs in Alma pay little
26% of the jobs based in Alma pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
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 361 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Alma’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
The poverty rate holds Alma’s grade up (4.2%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 4% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.3%) is left out: Alma’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, Alma could be anywhere from C to B.
How far Alma’s workers travel
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.
Inside Alma’s 482 jobs
482 jobs are based in Alma.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Alma, 2013 → 2023: 478 → 482. 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 Alma’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Alma, and who commutes in
On a workday 262 residents head out to work, 99 work right here, and 383 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Alma on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.34 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.
Out of Alma to work: where people go
Where Alma clocks in
14% of workers
6% 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 long Alma spends getting to work: about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Alma workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 522 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Nebraska: 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.
The commute in Alma is mostly behind the wheel
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across Nebraska, on an EPA index of 6.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 537 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). 2.1% of Alma households have no vehicle (Nebraska 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Alma’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Alma is 1,169th among 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 132 | Pohocco Township NE | 1,296 | $100K | 2.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 176 | Arlington NE | 1,329 | $94K | 3.1% | 0.0% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 189 | Fort Calhoun NE | 1,108 | $102K | 6.9% | 2.1% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,167 | Loma Linda MO | 1,009 | $92K | 13.4% | 4.4% | 0% | B− |
| 1,168 | Vernon Township MI | 1,325 | $81K | 8.6% | 6.7% | 3% | B− |
| 1,169 | Alma NE | 1,009 | $76K | 4.2% | 1.3% | 27% | B− |
| 1,170 | Middlebury NY | 1,315 | $86K | 8.2% | 3.8% | 2% | B− |
| 1,171 | St. Michaels MD | 1,083 | $78K | 5.8% | 7.6% | 11% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Alma, the top three, the last and three more from Nebraska.
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 Alma: questions
What is the median household income in Alma?
$75,703 (±$12,842) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Alma?
4.2%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Alma?
17 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Alma work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Holdrege (14%, 23 mi), Kearney (6%, 44 mi), Omaha (3%, 191 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Alma walkable?
Alma is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Alma without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Alma, from the people who make the trip.
More of Alma
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.