Photo: Ruhrfisch · CC BY-SA 4.0Earning a living in Moorcroft
A typical one-way commute lasts 25 minutes (Wyoming 19, U.S. 26). Moorcroft grades C+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Only 6% work in Moorcroft itself; outside it, Sundance draws the most (17%, 30 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Moorcroft apart on work
Moorcroft’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Moorcroft is Sundance, 30 miles away as the crow flies. 17% of working residents (55) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Moorcroft workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 25 minutes each way, against 19 across Wyoming. Over a year that’s about 192 hours of commuting, 46 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Moorcroft than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Moorcroft fell from 322 in 2013 to 237 in 2023, −26%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
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 319 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Moorcroft
On income, poverty and job access, Moorcroft is better than 42% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Moorcroft’s grade up (4.6%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down.
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Moorcroft’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, Moorcroft could be anywhere from C− to B.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Moorcroft
About 22% 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.
A commute of about 25 minutes in Moorcroft
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Moorcroft workers work from home, vs 9% across Wyoming. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 370 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across Wyoming: 83% 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.
In Moorcroft, 36% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
237 jobs are based in Moorcroft.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Moorcroft, 2013 → 2023: 322 → 237. 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 Moorcroft’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Moorcroft for work, and who comes in
On a workday 299 residents head out to work, 20 work right here, and 217 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.
0.74 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
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 Moorcroft’s working residents head each day
Where Moorcroft clocks in
7% 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.
Moorcroft is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Moorcroft is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.8% across Wyoming, on an EPA index of 6.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 414 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). 0.0% of Moorcroft households have no vehicle (Wyoming 4.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Moorcroft’s commuters take a bus or train.
Moorcroft is 1,273rd of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 251 | Rafter J Ranch WY | 1,293 | $161K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 336 | Hoback WY | 1,316 | $147K | 1.7% | 1.8% | 11% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 536 | Story WY | 1,054 | $114K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,271 | Hartland Township OH | 1,035 | $73K | 9.1% | 2.9% | 0% | C+ |
| 1,272 | Sumpter WI | 1,030 | $59K | 7.1% | 0.7% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,273 | Moorcroft WY | 1,023 | $71K | 4.6% | 0.0% | 6% | C+ |
| 1,274 | Craftsbury VT | 1,291 | $84K | 6.6% | 0.0% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,275 | Montello WI | 1,174 | $88K | 10.0% | 4.8% | <1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Moorcroft, the top three, the last and three more from Wyoming.
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 Moorcroft: questions
What is the median household income in Moorcroft?
$71,458 (±$13,326) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $76,176 across Wyoming and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Moorcroft?
4.6%, against 10.5% across Wyoming and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Moorcroft?
25 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Wyoming and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Moorcroft work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sundance (17%, 30 mi), Gillette (15%, 27 mi), Hulett (7%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Moorcroft walkable?
Moorcroft is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Moorcroft without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Moorcroft, from the people who make the trip.
More of Moorcroft
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.