Photo: Jennifer Luther Thomas · CC BY-SA 2.0Jobs and earnings in Waterston, and the trip to work
Every working day brings 160 commuters in, filling the village. For 47% of residents who travel to work, the journey is under 3 miles. Waterston isn’t graded for jobs and income.
What stands out about work in Waterston
More jobs than the typical town
139 jobs are based in Waterston for 135 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Restaurants, cafés and pubs, wholesale and cleaning and grounds maintenance make up 28% of them. Jobs based here ↓
More benefit claims than most towns
The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Benefits over time ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
139 jobs, one in seven in hotels, pubs and restaurants
1 for every working resident; the typical UK town has 0.7.
BRES counts jobs, not people (a part-time job and a second job count once each), so it runs above the Census count of people working here (197). Small areas are shared out to the town by where their Census 2021 workers were based; kinds of work are BRES industry divisions (SIC 2007), rounded. Wales’ towns: all jobs in its built-up areas.
Jobs at workplaces in Waterston (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Jobless claims in the Pembrokeshire council area are below England and Wales’ rate
Pembrokeshire’s rate was about 2.8% in 2019, peaked at 6.5% in August 2020 and has averaged 3.5% in 2026, against 4% across England and Wales. Claims everywhere stay higher than before the pandemic, partly because Universal Credit counts more people on low pay as looking for work.
The chart is the whole council area of Pembrokeshire, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Waterston’s built-up area. Claimant count: people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, or Universal Credit while required to look for work. Employment deprivation counts people out of work on Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Carer’s Allowance or the Universal Credit equivalents (Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025). The “most deprived tenth” compares areas within Wales only.
Claimant rate since 2015: people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or Universal Credit while looking for work, as a share of residents aged 16 to 64 (DWP, via Nomis).
Workers pour into Waterston: 46% more on a working day
135 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 197 people worked in Waterston.
For every resident who leaves Waterston for work, about 2 people come in.
The middle of each bar is the same people: residents who work in the village or from home.
Waterston’s workers come from Milford Haven to Pembroke
- Milford Haven42
- Pembroke Dock27
- Countryside24
- Pembroke11
- Neyland8
- Haverfordwest8
- Cardiff3
- Tenby3
- Hook3
- Merlin's Bridge3
Milford Haven, 2 miles away, sends 42 people, more than any other town; in all, 81% of the people who work in Waterston live outside it. Going the other way, Haverfordwest is the biggest single destination (22).
The ten places that send the most workers into Waterston, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
Before tax, households in Waterston average £43,481
Higher than 18% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Pembrokeshire averages £41,978.
The town figure is ONS’s neighbourhood (MSOA) estimates shared out by where the town’s residents live.
Total household income before tax, mean, year to March 2023 (ONS small-area estimates).
Waterston commutes on foot, by bike or bus for 7% of trips
Median journey 6.1 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
ONS Census 2021, TS061 (method of travel) and TS058 (distance, straight line from home to workplace), output areas summed. Census day fell in the third lockdown, so fewer people travelled than usual.
How residents who travel to work get there, and how far they go (Census 2021, not counting those working mainly at home).
55% of Waterston’s adults have a job
The mix is close to Wales’ towns’ as a whole.
ONS Census 2021, tables TS066 (economic activity) and TS063 (occupation), output areas summed to the built-up area. Wales’ towns: everyone living in its built-up areas.
Everyone 16 and over, by what they were doing the week before the 2021 Census, and the jobs of those in work.
Around Waterston: jobs, pay and the commute
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waterston | 274 | 139 | — | 3.8% | — |
| Neyland | 3,250 | 754 | 11% | 3.7% | D− |
| Milford Haven | 14,251 | 3,498 | 28% | 4.5% | D− |
| Pembroke Dock | 9,659 | 4,340 | 34% | 5.2% | D− |
| Johnston | 1,766 | 335 | 6% | 3.3% | D |
| Pembroke | 7,963 | 1,525 | 14% | 4.6% | D− |
| Merlin's Bridge | 2,220 | 600 | 6% | 3.8% | D |
| Haverfordwest | 12,088 | 10,971 | 48% | 5% | D |
Jobs based in each place, commuters who stay in their own town, and the claimant rate.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The Census was taken in lockdown. Census day was 21 March 2021, during the third national lockdown: many people were furloughed or working from home, so fewer travelled to work, and journeys were shorter, than before the pandemic or since. The flows on this page show where people worked that spring.
- At home and no fixed place are one figure. In the workplace flows, ONS puts people who mainly worked at home and people with no fixed workplace (drivers, builders, care workers on rounds) at their home address, so the two can’t be told apart there.
- Towns are built-up areas. Waterston here is ONS’s built-up area: the town as built, not its council district. A workplace on an estate or farm outside every built-up area counts as “outside any built-up area”.
- Jobs are counted where they are. BRES counts jobs at each workplace (employees and working owners, rounded by ONS), so a town with a hospital, university or big employer can have more jobs than working residents. Small areas are shared out to towns by where their Census workers were based.
- The benefits chart is the council area. Nomis publishes the claimant count monthly for councils back to 2013, so the line is Pembrokeshire as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Waterston’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Waterston
How many people commute into Waterston?
160 people who lived elsewhere worked in Waterston at the 2021 Census, 81% of its 197 workers. The most came from Milford Haven (42), Pembroke Dock (27) and Pembroke (11). 96 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Waterston?
About 140 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Waterston in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town.
How do people in Waterston get to work?
92% of commuters go by car or van, 3% walk, 2% cycle and 2% take the bus or train; 47% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Waterston?
Mean household income before tax was £43,481 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.
How does Waterston compare with Llanelli for jobs?
Waterston has 1 jobs per working resident against Llanelli’s 1, a 3.8% claimant rate against 3.8%, and mean household income of £43,481 against £41,218.
Sources: ONS Census 2021 origin-destination data, place of work (ODWP01EW), output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · ONS Census 2021 tables TS058 (distance), TS061 (method of travel), TS063 (occupation) and TS066 (economic activity) · ONS Business Register and Employment Survey via Nomis (open access), by industry division · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); House of Commons Library MSOA names · DWP claimant count via Nomis (towns January to August 2026; councils, regions and England and Wales monthly since January 2015) · Welsh Government, Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025 · DfT Transport Connectivity Metric (employment) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.