Mount Vernon Arsenal-Searcy Hospital Complex · Photo: E. W. Russell, Photographer · Public domainMount Vernon’s household incomes are lower than in 92% of U.S. towns
Jobs & income D: better than 14% of U.S. towns on income, poverty and job access.
Walkability D: more walkable than 8% of U.S. towns.
Working residents average 26 minutes each way (Alabama 26, U.S. 26). Only 2% work in Mount Vernon; the top destination outside it is Mobile (31%, 30 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Mount Vernon, in brief
Fewer jobs are based in Mount Vernon than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Mount Vernon fell from 2,555 in 2013 to 189 in 2023, −93%. 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 ↓
Mount Vernon and Mobile trade workers both ways
Mobile is the top workplace for Mount Vernon residents (31%) and also where the most people who work in Mount Vernon come from (14% 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 459 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Mount Vernon’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Mount Vernon is better than 14% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Mount Vernon’s grade up (ahead of 42% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($46,307, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.7%) is left out: Mount Vernon’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, Mount Vernon could be anywhere from D to C+.
What the 189 jobs in Mount Vernon are
189 jobs are based in Mount Vernon. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Mount Vernon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Vernon, 2013 → 2023: 2,555 → 189. 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.
31% of working residents work in Mobile
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Where Mount Vernon clocks in
31% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
Mount Vernon quiets down on a workday
On a workday 450 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 180 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Mount Vernon on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
0.41 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
About 26 minutes each way, about the AL average
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Vernon workers work from home, vs 9% across Alabama. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 516 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Alabama: 88% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
Half of Mount Vernon commutes less than 29 miles
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
About 21% 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.
Most trips from Mount Vernon start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Vernon is more walkable than 8% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 0.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.7% across Alabama, on an EPA index of 3.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 538 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). 6.1% of Mount Vernon households have no vehicle (Alabama 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mount Vernon’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mount Vernon is 4,541st of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900 on jobs and income
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Mount Vernon, the top three, the last and three more from Alabama.
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 80 | Shoal Creek AL | 1,328 | $218K | 0.0% | 2.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 340 | Rock Creek AL | 1,103 | $84K | 2.5% | 2.8% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 373 | Blue Ridge AL | 1,190 | $128K | 6.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,539 | Reading Township MI | 1,734 | $66K | 17.1% | 4.9% | 1% | D |
| 4,540 | Woodville CA | 1,460 | $55K | 19.2% | 14.5% | 3% | D |
| 4,541 | Mount Vernon AL | 1,385 | $46K | 17.8% | 2.7% | 2% | D |
| 4,542 | Dunsmuir CA | 1,587 | $58K | 11.4% | 9.8% | 18% | D |
| 4,543 | Osborne KS | 1,249 | $52K | 9.3% | 1.1% | 24% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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.
Mount Vernon and the towns next door
Darker towns draw more of Mount Vernon’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mount Vernon workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Vernon | – | D | D | 26 min | $46,307 |
| Calvert | under 2% | — | — | — | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Calvert: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
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 Mount Vernon: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Vernon?
$46,307 (±$13,998) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $63,999 across Alabama and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Vernon?
17.8%, against 15.6% across Alabama and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Vernon?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Alabama and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Vernon work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mobile (31%, 30 mi), Saraland (4%, 17 mi), Citronelle (3%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Vernon walkable?
Mount Vernon is more walkable than 8% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 3.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Vernon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Vernon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Vernon
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.