Jess Norman Post 166 American Legion Hut · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Augusta trail those of 87% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Augusta D−; getting around on foot earns it B. 28.7% of residents are in poverty; Arkansas has 16.0%. For 0% of workers, the job is at home, next to 9% for Arkansas as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Augusta
Fewer than half of Augusta workers earn over $40,000 a year
37% of Augusta’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Few Augusta workers work from home
Only 0% of workers work from home, against 9% across Arkansas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. 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 734 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Augusta’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Augusta is better than 3% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Augusta’s grade.
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Augusta’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, Augusta could be anywhere from D− to D.
The kinds of work in Augusta
711 jobs are based in Augusta.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Augusta, 2013 → 2023: 726 → 711. 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 Augusta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 22 minutes from Augusta
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Augusta workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 806 commuters (the 0% who work from home are left out). Across Arkansas: 87% 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.
Who works in Augusta, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 581 residents head out to work, 153 work right here, and 558 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 (0.97 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.
12% of working residents work in Searcy
Where Augusta clocks in
5% 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.
Where in the region Augusta works
About 27% 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.
Most trips from Augusta start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Augusta is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Arkansas, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 806 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). 13.0% of Augusta households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Augusta’s commuters take a bus or train.
Augusta next to U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 130 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 936 | West Fork AR | 2,373 | $78K | 3.1% | 3.5% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,371 | Mayflower AR | 2,372 | $76K | 5.6% | 4.4% | 6% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 5,011 | Gold Hill Township IL | 1,345 | $50K | 18.8% | 3.9% | 8% | D− |
| 5,012 | La Luz NM | 1,797 | $47K | 15.0% | 26.4% | 4% | D− |
| 5,013 | Augusta AR | 1,813 | $51K | 28.7% | 4.2% | 21% | D− |
| 5,014 | Sparks GA | 2,098 | $39K | 27.6% | 2.9% | <1% | D− |
| 5,015 | Enfield NC | 1,777 | $35K | 20.7% | 21.4% | 3% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,343 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Augusta, the top three, the last and three more from Arkansas.
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 Augusta: questions
What is the median household income in Augusta?
$50,575 (±$8,880) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Augusta?
28.7%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Augusta?
22 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Augusta work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Searcy (12%, 21 mi), Gregory (9%, 9 mi), McCrory (5%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Augusta walkable?
Augusta is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Augusta without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Augusta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Augusta
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.