Work & commute · St. Helens

Work & commute in St. Helens, OR

Most working residents leave St. Helens for work: only 16% work in town. The top destinations are Portland (27%), Hillsboro (8%) and Beaverton (3%). Half commute less than 24 miles.

Census LEHD commute flows, 2023 Census ACS commute times

Work in town

16%

1,114 of 6,942 working residents

Typical commute

24 mi

Half commute less than this, straight-line

Average commute time

30 min

One way, from the Census survey

Work from home

13%

of workers, from the Census survey

Coming and going

Who leaves, who stays, who comes in

On a workday 5,828 St. Helens residents head out of town to work, 1,114 work right here, and 2,662 people come in from elsewhere to fill jobs in St. Helens.

5,828live here, work elsewhere

1,114live and work here

2,662work here, live elsewhere

Leave for workStayCome in

The map

Where St. Helens goes to work

Portland23.5 mi away

27%1,866

St. Helens (in town)right here

16%1,114

Hillsboro23.5 mi away

8%538

Beaverton26.1 mi away

3%241

Scappoose7.3 mi away

3%222

Salem65.2 mi away

3%211

Tigard30 mi away

2%140

Gresham30.4 mi away

2%126

Tualatin33.2 mi away

1%78

Vancouver, WA18.5 mi away

1%70

Everywhere elseother towns and states

34%2,336

Lines run between town centers; a thicker line means more commuters. The top 10 towns each way.

How far

How far St. Helens commutes

Straight-line distance from home to work, for every working resident. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

25%

36%

27%

13%

25%Under 10 mi

36%10–24 mi

27%25–50 mi

13%Over 50 mi

Job hub or commuter town?

St. Helens is a commuter town

0.54jobs per working resident

A commuter town

0.54 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.

The jobs

What the jobs in St. Helens are

3,776 jobs are based in St. Helens. Here is what they are, next to the jobs St. Helens’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in St. Helens

3,776 jobs

Goods (factories, building, farms)14%

Trade, transport & utilities15%

Services (health, schools, offices…)71%

$1,250 a month or less16%

$1,251–$3,333 a month29%

Over $3,333 a month55%

Jobs St. Helens residents hold

6,942 working residents

Goods (factories, building, farms)25%

Trade, transport & utilities21%

Services (health, schools, offices…)53%

$1,250 a month or less11%

$1,251–$3,333 a month24%

Over $3,333 a month66%

+8%

Jobs based in St. Helens, 2013 → 2023: 3,481 → 3,776. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

About these numbers

How to read this page

Every worker, home to workThe Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.

Where the employer saysA job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.

Two surveysFlows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time and working from home: the Census American Community Survey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs; American Community Survey 5-year estimates.