Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Newark’s household incomes are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
For 0% of workers, the job is at home; Arkansas has 9%. Poverty touches 29.5% of residents (Arkansas 16.0%). Jobs and income earn Newark D−; getting around on foot earns it D.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Newark
Where Newark’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Newark is better than 3% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Newark’s grade up (ahead of 20% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
Unemployment (3.6%) is left out: Newark’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, Newark could be anywhere from D− to C−.
41% of working residents work in Batesville
Where Newark clocks in
4% 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.
Newark by day and by night
On a workday 445 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 280 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Newark on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.64 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.
Goods, not services: 47% of the jobs in Newark
293 jobs are based in Newark.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Newark, 2013 → 2023: 176 → 293. 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 Newark’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Newark: about 24 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 Newark workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 642 commuters (the <1% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Newark
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 Newark, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Newark is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Newark near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 645 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). 7.2% of Newark households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Newark’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Newark sits among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 78 | Roland AR | 1,147 | $175K | 0.0% | 2.7% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 372 | Wooster AR | 1,150 | $112K | 5.8% | 2.3% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,170 | Redfield AR | 1,492 | $72K | 8.3% | 3.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,080 | Towanda Township PA | 1,021 | $50K | 26.4% | 5.6% | 1% | D− |
| 4,081 | North Towanda Township PA | 1,041 | $29K | 28.6% | 6.3% | 10% | D− |
| 4,082 | Newark AR | 1,184 | $40K | 29.5% | 3.6% | 3% | D− |
| 4,083 | Highland AR | 1,060 | $49K | 21.3% | 6.6% | 5% | D− |
| 4,084 | Worthington IN | 1,403 | $47K | 23.8% | 6.0% | 5% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | 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 Newark, 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 Newark: questions
What is the median household income in Newark?
$40,417 (±$11,789) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Newark?
29.5%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Newark?
24 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Newark work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Batesville (41%, 11 mi), Newport (4%, 13 mi), Searcy (4%, 36 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Newark walkable?
Newark is more walkable than 6% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Newark without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Newark, from the people who make the trip.
More of Newark
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.