Bank of Carthage · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Most of Carthage commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
0% of workers have no commute at all, next to 9% for Arkansas as a whole. Carthage has 31 jobs for 81 working residents. Only 2% work in Carthage; the top destination outside it is Fordyce (20%, 19 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How a workday changes Carthage
On a workday 79 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 29 people come in from elsewhere.
About 150 people are in Carthage on a workday afternoon, 25% fewer than live here.
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 Carthage’s residents
Where Carthage clocks in
20% of workers
9% of workers
6% 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.
In Carthage, 100% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Carthage, 2013 → 2023: 132 → 31. 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 Carthage’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 20 minutes to work from Carthage
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Carthage workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 39 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Carthage
About 23% 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 Carthage: questions
What is the poverty rate in Carthage?
25.9%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Carthage?
20 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Carthage work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Fordyce (20%, 19 mi), Sheridan (9%, 18 mi), Malvern (6%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Carthage without a car?
28% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Carthage, from the people who make the trip.
More of Carthage
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.