Photo: Calvin Beale · Public domainThere are 2.1 jobs in Chatom for every working resident, and 770 people commute in
Getting around Chatom on foot earns C−. Chatom has 829 jobs, against 398 working residents. Home is the office for 25% of workers, next to 9% for Alabama as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Chatom in brief
Chatom’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Chatom is Mobile, 56 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (36) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Chatom is where the jobs are
Chatom has 829 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 1,500 people are in town, 41% more than the 1,100 who live here. Day and night ↓
A big share show a job far from home
41% 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 ↓
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 398 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How far Chatom goes to work
About 41% 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.
Who leaves Chatom for work, and who comes in
On a workday 339 residents head out to work and 59 work right here.
About 1,500 people are in Chatom on a workday afternoon, 41% more than live here.
2.1 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.
Where Chatom’s workers come from
Where Chatom clocks in
9% of workers
5% 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.
What Chatom’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Chatom, 2013 → 2023: 918 → 829. 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 Chatom’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Commuting from Chatom: about 26 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Chatom workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 232 commuters (the 25% 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.
In Chatom, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Chatom is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 1.7% across Alabama.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 309 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). 7.3% of Chatom households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Chatom’s commuters take a bus or train.
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 Chatom: questions
What is the poverty rate in Chatom?
32.5%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Chatom?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 25% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Chatom work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mobile (9%, 56 mi), Jackson (5%, 21 mi), Leroy (2%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Chatom walkable?
Chatom is more walkable than 21% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Chatom without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Chatom, from the people who make the trip.
More of Chatom
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.