The Rothselberg villagers originally all earned their livelihoods at agriculture, and even by 1933, fully 43% of them still did. Nowadays, only a small minority work the land. In earlier times there were also day labourers and forestry workers. Since that time, the great majority in the village has come to be workers who must commute to jobs elsewhere, mainly to Wolfstein and Kaiserslautern. In contrast with other out-of-the-way villages in the Western Palatinate, transport links are relatively favourable because the village lies near Wolfstein and Kaiserslautern, and there has been no great drop in population as there has been in comparable villages whose transport links are not quite as favourable.