Photo: Rivers Langley; SaveRivers · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Clayton are among the lowest of any U.S. town
Jobs and income earn Clayton D−; getting around on foot earns it C−. Measured by household income, Clayton is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The poverty rate is 39.7%; Alabama has 15.6%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Clayton, in brief
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 ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Clayton than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Clayton fell from 891 in 2013 to 549 in 2023, −38%. 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 621 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Clayton’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Clayton is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Clayton’s grade.
Unemployment (23.5%) is left out: Clayton’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Clayton stays D−.
How far it is to work from Clayton
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.
Jobs in Clayton: what the 549 are
549 jobs are based in Clayton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Clayton, 2013 → 2023: 891 → 549. 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 Clayton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 574 residents head out to work, 47 work right here, and 502 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.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.88 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
10% of working residents work in Bakerhill
Where Clayton clocks in
10% of workers
8% of workers
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.
About 24 minutes each way for Clayton’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Clayton workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 218 commuters (the 15% 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.
Few in Clayton walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Clayton is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.7% across Alabama, on an EPA index of 4.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 256 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). 9.3% of Clayton households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Clayton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Clayton sits among U.S. towns of 1,500 to 3,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 78 | Indian Springs Village AL | 2,553 | $137K | 3.4% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 423 | Westover AL | 2,121 | $97K | 4.1% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 479 | Trinity AL | 2,638 | $101K | 3.1% | 2.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,632 | Hayfork CA | 2,537 | $44K | 44.3% | 0.0% | 23% | D− |
| 5,633 | Siesta Shores TX | 1,640 | $35K | 48.8% | 8.2% | 1% | D− |
| 5,634 | Clayton AL | 2,195 | $22K | 39.7% | 23.5% | 8% | D− |
| 5,635 | Manchester OH | 1,874 | $29K | 44.5% | 7.9% | 12% | D− |
| 5,636 | Lukachukai AZ | 1,969 | $37K | 35.0% | 20.5% | 0% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,641 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Clayton, 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 Clayton: questions
What is the median household income in Clayton?
$21,641 (±$6,954) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Clayton?
39.7%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Clayton?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 15% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Clayton work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bakerhill (10%, 12 mi), Eufaula (8%, 18 mi), Montgomery (7%, 57 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Clayton walkable?
Clayton is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 4.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Clayton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Clayton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Clayton
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.