Clyde Carter House · Photo: Spyder_Monkey · CC BY-SA 3.0Jobs and earnings in Killen, and the trip to work
Commuters spend 25 minutes getting to work on average; the Alabama average is 26, the U.S. 26. Killen grades C+ for jobs and income and C− for walkability. Only 3% work in Killen; the top destination outside it is Florence (28%, 8 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Killen
Killen is where the jobs are
Killen has 539 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Killen and Florence trade workers both ways
Florence is the top workplace for Killen residents (28%) and also where the most people who work in Killen come from (11% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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 357 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Killen’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Killen is better than 44% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Killen’s grade up (8.0%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 35% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.7%) is left out: Killen’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, Killen could be anywhere from C− to B+.
How many people are in Killen by day
On a workday 346 residents head out to work, 11 work right here, and 528 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Killen on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
1.5 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.
The daily trip into Killen
Where Killen clocks in
28% 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 Killen’s employers do
539 jobs are based in Killen.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Killen, 2013 → 2023: 417 → 539. 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 Killen’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Killen takes about 25 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Killen workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 450 commuters (the 6% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Killen
About 19% 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.
In Killen, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Killen is more walkable than 18% 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 478 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). 3.3% of Killen households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Killen’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Killen is 1,215th among 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 39 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 151 | Rock Creek AL | 1,103 | $84K | 2.5% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 162 | Blue Ridge AL | 1,190 | $128K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,213 | Onsted MI | 1,002 | $67K | 6.4% | 8.5% | 4% | C+ |
| 1,214 | Clarendon Township MI | 1,182 | $77K | 8.1% | 2.0% | 4% | C+ |
| 1,215 | Killen AL | 1,039 | $70K | 8.0% | 3.7% | 3% | C+ |
| 1,216 | Resaca GA | 1,145 | $58K | 7.4% | 0.9% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,217 | Marion TX | 1,101 | $63K | 16.4% | 2.2% | 2% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Killen, 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 Killen: questions
What is the median household income in Killen?
$69,722 (±$11,624) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Killen?
8.0%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Killen?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Killen work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Florence (28%, 8 mi), Muscle Shoals (10%, 10 mi), Sheffield (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Killen walkable?
Killen is more walkable than 18% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.5 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Killen without a car?
0% 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 Killen, from the people who make the trip.
More of Killen
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.