Clarks has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Only 3% stay in Clarks for work; outside it, Columbus is the main destination (14%, 29 miles). Employers in Clarks report 83 jobs, and 191 of its residents work somewhere. The trip to work takes 23 minutes on average, where Nebraska has 19 and the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Clarks quiets down on a workday
On a workday 185 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 77 people come in from elsewhere.
About 230 people are in Clarks on a workday afternoon, 32% 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.
Where people from Clarks work
Where Clarks clocks in
14% of workers
13% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 66% of the jobs in Clarks
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clarks, 2013 → 2023: 123 → 83. 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 Clarks’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes each way, longer than most of Nebraska
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clarks workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 175 commuters (the 8% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Clarks
About 20% 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 Clarks: questions
What is the median household income in Clarks?
$49,167 (±$14,665) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clarks?
15.2%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clarks?
23 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clarks work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbus (14%, 29 mi), Central City (13%, 11 mi), Grand Island (13%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Clarks 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 Clarks, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clarks
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.