Earle High School, Old · Photo: Kdwaits · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Earle are among the lowest of any U.S. town
For jobs and income Earle is better than 10% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (C). Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Below the poverty line: 36.2% of residents, where Arkansas as a whole has 16.0%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Earle, in a few figures
Fewer jobs are based in Earle than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Earle fell from 406 in 2013 to 156 in 2023, −62%. 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 ↓
Earle is a place people come home to
There are 156 jobs based in Earle, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Earle has about 1,300 people in it, 26% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Earle workers earn over $40,000 a year
40% of Earle’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 16% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
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 603 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Earle
Job access by car holds Earle’s grade up (ahead of 55% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($32,197, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (16.9%) is left out: Earle’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, Earle could be anywhere from D to C−.
What the 156 jobs in Earle are
156 jobs are based in Earle.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Earle, 2013 → 2023: 406 → 156. 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 Earle’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Earle, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 554 residents head out to work, 49 work right here, and 107 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Earle on a workday afternoon, 26% fewer than live here.
0.26 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.
17% of working residents work in West Memphis
Where Earle clocks in
16% of workers
16% 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.
The daily trip from Earle: about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Earle workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 538 commuters (the 9% 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.
The commute from Earle, by distance
About 17% 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 of Earle commutes by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 2.0% across Arkansas, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 593 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 22.9% of Earle households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Earle’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300, Earle ranks 4,812th of 5,760 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 131 | Avilla AR | 1,833 | $106K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,773 | Redfield AR | 1,492 | $72K | 8.3% | 3.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,420 | Bay AR | 1,803 | $60K | 14.8% | 2.1% | 2% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,810 | Eagle River WI | 1,715 | $55K | 14.4% | 4.9% | 27% | D |
| 4,811 | Cherokee NC | 2,059 | $56K | 21.3% | 1.6% | 37% | D |
| 4,812 | Earle AR | 1,721 | $32K | 36.2% | 16.9% | 8% | D |
| 4,813 | Blacksburg SC | 1,965 | $32K | 31.4% | 10.5% | 3% | D |
| 4,814 | Mason TN | 1,342 | $48K | 31.0% | 6.1% | 2% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | 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 Earle, 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 Earle: questions
What is the median household income in Earle?
$32,197 (±$19,330) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Earle?
36.2%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Earle?
31 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Earle work?
8% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are West Memphis (17%, 17 mi), Marion (16%, 15 mi), Memphis (16%, 30 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Earle walkable?
Earle is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Earle without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 23% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Earle, from the people who make the trip.
More of Earle
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.