Photo: Ammodramus · Public domainUnemployment in Seward (1.7%) is lower than in 88% of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are lower than in 54% of U.S. towns. For jobs and income Seward is better than 63% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (B+). Commuters spend 22 minutes getting to work 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
What the numbers say about work in Seward
Seward’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
Unemployment holds Seward’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($72,564, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Seward could be anywhere from B− to A−.
31% of working residents work in Lincoln
Where Seward clocks in
31% of workers
8% 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.
Seward by day and by night
On a workday 2,238 residents head out to work, 1,065 work right here, and 2,040 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.94 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.
A place that makes things: 31% of Seward’s jobs are in goods
3,105 jobs are based in Seward.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Seward, 2013 → 2023: 3,365 → 3,105. 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 Seward’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 22 minutes in Seward
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Seward workers work from home, vs 11% across Nebraska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,605 commuters (the 6% 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 distance from Seward to work
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.
Driving is how Seward gets around
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.5% across Nebraska, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,845 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). 6.1% of Seward households have no vehicle (Nebraska 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Seward’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Seward ranks: 1,394th of 3,069 U.S. towns of 5,500 to 10,700
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 99 | Gretna NE | 9,207 | $124K | 4.2% | 0.6% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 324 | Chalco NE | 10,595 | $86K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 579 | Ralston NE | 6,382 | $69K | 4.0% | 2.2% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,392 | Youngtown AZ | 7,039 | $68K | 10.4% | 3.1% | 2% | B |
| 1,393 | Hiram GA | 5,585 | $85K | 12.0% | 3.8% | 5% | B |
| 1,394 | Seward NE | 7,892 | $73K | 9.6% | 1.7% | 32% | B |
| 1,395 | Columbiana OH | 6,756 | $55K | 8.3% | 1.5% | 13% | B |
| 1,396 | Richmond Township IL | 6,781 | $96K | 4.9% | 10.3% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,069 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Seward, 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 Seward: questions
What is the median household income in Seward?
$72,564 (±$8,661) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,475 across Nebraska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Seward?
9.6%, against 10.6% across Nebraska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Seward?
22 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Nebraska and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Seward work?
32% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lincoln (31%, 23 mi), Omaha (8%, 60 mi), York (2%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Seward walkable?
Seward is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Seward 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 Seward, from the people who make the trip.
More of Seward
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.