Col. Green G. Mobley House · Photo: Altairisfar · CC BY-SA 3.0Where Gainesville earns its living
A typical one-way commute lasts 38 minutes (Alabama 26, U.S. 26). For 0% of workers, the job is at home, where Alabama as a whole has 9%. Only 4% stay in Gainesville for work; outside it, Livingston is the main destination (12%, 15 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who leaves Gainesville for work, and who comes in
On a workday 55 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 41 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 (0.75 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.
The towns that employ Gainesville’s residents
Where Gainesville clocks in
12% 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.
Health, schools and offices: most of the jobs in Gainesville
43 jobs are based in Gainesville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
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 Gainesville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Gainesville spends getting to work: about 38 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gainesville workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 90 commuters (the 0% 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.
The commute from Gainesville, by distance
About 44% 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.
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 Gainesville: questions
What is the poverty rate in Gainesville?
43.6%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gainesville?
38 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gainesville work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Livingston (12%, 15 mi), Tuscaloosa (9%, 47 mi), De Kalb (5%, 29 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Gainesville without a car?
7% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gainesville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gainesville
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.