Photo: Sam Beebe · CC BY 2.0Households in Joseph have lower incomes than those in 82% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Joseph are C− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Poverty touches 5.7% of residents (Oregon 11.9%). About one in five work in Joseph; the top destination outside it is Enterprise (32%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Joseph apart on work
Joseph and Enterprise trade workers both ways
Enterprise is the top workplace for Joseph residents (32%) and also where the most people who work in Joseph come from (21% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Most Joseph residents work close to home
63% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 360 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Joseph: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Joseph is better than 24% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Joseph’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 2% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.4%) is left out: Joseph’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, Joseph could be anywhere from D to C+.
Commuting out of Joseph: the destinations
Where Joseph clocks in
32% 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.
The commute from Joseph, by distance
About 30% 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.
The workday shuffle in and out of Joseph
On a workday 287 residents head out to work, 73 work right here, and 308 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 (1.06 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.
Factories, building and farms: 33% of the jobs in Joseph
381 jobs are based in Joseph.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Joseph, 2013 → 2023: 348 → 381. 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 Joseph’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 16 minutes in Joseph
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Joseph workers work from home, vs 19% across Oregon. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 368 commuters (the 15% who work from home are left out). Across Oregon: 80% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Most of Joseph commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Joseph is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Joseph 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 432 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 53% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 1.4% of Joseph households have no vehicle (Oregon 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Joseph’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600, Joseph ranks 2,713th 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 138 | Stafford OR | 1,600 | $163K | 6.9% | 5.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 143 | Coburg OR | 1,373 | $98K | 1.5% | 8.9% | 5% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 230 | Aurora OR | 1,113 | $108K | 6.1% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,711 | Chenoweth OR | 1,445 | $63K | 10.9% | 16.1% | 1% | C− |
| 2,712 | Venice IL | 1,450 | $32K | 43.3% | 26.0% | 6% | C− |
| 2,713 | Joseph OR | 1,188 | $54K | 5.7% | 1.4% | 20% | C− |
| 2,714 | Exeter-Fairmont Consolidated Township NE | 1,253 | $73K | 11.8% | 1.3% | 19% | C− |
| 2,715 | Rockford OH | 1,039 | $58K | 10.8% | 3.9% | 8% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Joseph, the top three, the last and three more from Oregon.
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 Joseph: questions
What is the median household income in Joseph?
$54,444 (±$8,030) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,011 across Oregon and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Joseph?
5.7%, against 11.9% across Oregon and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Joseph?
16 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Oregon and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Joseph work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Enterprise (32%, 6 mi), Portland (5%, 263 mi), Wallowa Lake (3%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Joseph walkable?
Joseph is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Joseph without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Joseph, from the people who make the trip.
More of Joseph
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.