Woonsocket at work: jobs, income and the commute
A typical one-way commute lasts 15 minutes (South Dakota 18, U.S. 26). About one in seven work in Woonsocket itself; outside it, Mitchell draws the most (18%, 25 miles). Employers in Woonsocket report 279 jobs, against 281 working residents.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Woonsocket, in a few figures
The distance from Woonsocket to work
About 26% 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.
Woonsocket on a workday afternoon
On a workday 234 residents head out to work, 47 work right here, and 232 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 (0.99 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 Woonsocket to work: where people go
Where Woonsocket clocks in
Lines 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.
What Woonsocket’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Woonsocket, 2013 → 2023: 242 → 279. 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 Woonsocket’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 15 minutes each way, quicker than most of South Dakota
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Woonsocket workers work from home, vs 10% across South Dakota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 322 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across South Dakota: 85% 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.
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 Woonsocket: questions
What is the median household income in Woonsocket?
$56,765 (±$18,890) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $75,081 across South Dakota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Woonsocket?
7.0%, against 11.9% across South Dakota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Woonsocket?
15 minutes each way on average, against 18 across South Dakota and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Woonsocket work?
17% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mitchell (18%, 25 mi), Huron (7%, 22 mi), Sioux Falls (6%, 85 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Woonsocket without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Woonsocket, from the people who make the trip.
More of Woonsocket
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.