Guin has higher unemployment (11.2%) than 96% of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are lower than in 87% of U.S. towns. Jobs and income earn Guin D−; getting around on foot earns it C. About one in five work in Guin itself; outside it, Winfield draws the most (13%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Guin
Guin makes and builds things
70% of the jobs based in Guin are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Guin residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 33%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
38% 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 ↓
Commutes from Guin are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 26 across Alabama. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Alabama worker. Time on the road ↓
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 941 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Guin’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Guin is better than 5% of U.S. towns. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Guin’s grade.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Guin could be anywhere from D− to B−.
Factories, building and farms: 70% of the jobs in Guin
1,221 jobs are based in Guin.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Guin, 2013 → 2023: 983 → 1,221. 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 Guin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Guin
About 38% 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.
How long Guin spends getting to work: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Guin workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 898 commuters (the 2% 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.
Guin by day and by night
On a workday 770 residents head out to work, 171 work right here, and 1,050 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,400 people are in Guin on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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.
Where Guin goes to work
Where Guin clocks in
Lines 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.
Few in Guin walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Guin is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Guin near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 917 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). 3.1% of Guin households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Guin’s commuters take a bus or train.
Guin next to U.S. towns of 1,500 to 2,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 76 | Indian Springs Village AL | 2,553 | $137K | 3.4% | 1.7% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 401 | Westover AL | 2,121 | $97K | 4.1% | 0.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 454 | Trinity AL | 2,638 | $101K | 3.1% | 2.8% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,999 | Searles Valley CA | 1,713 | $63K | 24.3% | 11.1% | 22% | D |
| 5,000 | Collinsville AL | 2,121 | $32K | 26.0% | 2.2% | 8% | D− |
| 5,001 | Guin AL | 2,136 | $51K | 18.3% | 11.2% | 18% | D− |
| 5,002 | Independence LA | 1,665 | $40K | 31.0% | 14.2% | 4% | D− |
| 5,003 | Maxton NC | 2,149 | $23K | 42.7% | 9.5% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,404 | 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 Guin, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
Work in the towns next to Guin
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Guin workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guin | – | D− | C | 18 min | $51,117 |
| Twin | under 2% | — | — | 24 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Twin: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Guin’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Guin: questions
What is the median household income in Guin?
$51,117 (±$14,703) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Guin?
18.3%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Guin?
18 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Guin work?
18% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Winfield (13%, 7 mi), Hamilton (10%, 11 mi), Tuscaloosa (4%, 56 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Guin walkable?
Guin is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Guin without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Guin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Guin
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.