Photo: RuralSWAlabama (Billy Milstead) · CC BY 3.0Butler has lower household incomes than 91% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Butler itself; outside it, Mobile draws the most (5%, 99 miles). The poverty rate is 16.5%; Alabama has 15.6%. For jobs and income Butler is better than 5% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (C+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Butler
Butler is where the jobs are
Butler has 894 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
36% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Butler than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Butler fell from 1,185 in 2013 to 894 in 2023, −25%. 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 567 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Butler
The poverty rate holds Butler’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 7% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (1.8%) is left out: Butler’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, Butler could be anywhere from D− to C.
How a workday changes Butler
On a workday 435 residents head out to work, 132 work right here, and 762 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Butler on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
How far Butler goes to work
About 36% 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.
Jobs in Butler: what the 894 are
894 jobs are based in Butler.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Butler, 2013 → 2023: 1,185 → 894. 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 Butler’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who travels to work in Butler, and from where
Where Butler clocks in
5% of workers
2% of workers
2% 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.
About 27 minutes each way for Butler’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Butler workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 900 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Alabama: 88% 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.
Getting around Butler: mostly by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 924 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). 8.5% of Butler households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Butler’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300, and where Butler sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 83 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 362 | Westover AL | 2,121 | $97K | 4.1% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 963 | Smoke Rise AL | 1,471 | $86K | 5.5% | 8.6% | <1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,252 | Washington Township OH | 2,283 | $57K | 23.2% | 10.4% | 2% | D |
| 5,253 | Stearns KY | 1,271 | $56K | 33.2% | 7.3% | 9% | D |
| 5,254 | Butler AL | 1,698 | $47K | 16.5% | 1.8% | 23% | D |
| 5,255 | St. Francis KS | 1,265 | $50K | 15.4% | 3.3% | 40% | D |
| 5,256 | Hancock MD | 1,581 | $35K | 23.7% | 2.7% | 12% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Butler, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
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 Butler: questions
What is the median household income in Butler?
$47,350 (±$27,212) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Butler?
16.5%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Butler?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Butler work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mobile (5%, 99 mi), Livingston (2%, 34 mi), Birmingham (2%, 128 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Butler walkable?
Butler is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Butler without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Butler, from the people who make the trip.
More of Butler
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.