Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki ([email protected]) · CC BY 3.0More people are out of work in Paragould (7.2%) than in 84% of U.S. towns
Paragould grades C− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Measured by household income, Paragould is behind 78% of U.S. towns. About half work in Paragould; the top destination outside it is Jonesboro (20%, 19 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Paragould: the gist
Jobs & income in Paragould: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Paragould is better than 18% of U.S. towns, #72 of 123 in Arkansas. Job access by car holds Paragould’s grade up (ahead of 51% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Paragould could be anywhere from D to C.
Inside Paragould’s 17,025 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Paragould, 2013 → 2023: 13,107 → 17,025. 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 Paragould’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Paragould fills up on a workday
On a workday 6,613 residents head out to work, 5,422 work right here, and 11,603 people come in from elsewhere.
About 36,000 people are in Paragould on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.41 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.
The places Paragould commutes to
Where Paragould clocks in
20% of workers
2% 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.
About 20 minutes to work from Paragould
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Paragould workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 12,448 commuters (the 4% 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.
Half of Paragould commutes less than 7 miles
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.
In Paragould, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Paragould is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns, #47 of 123 in Arkansas. Both inputs place Paragould 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 12,994 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). 6.5% of Paragould households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Paragould’s commuters take a bus or train.
Paragould next to U.S. towns of 22,000 to 42,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 183 | Centerton AR | 27,176 | $116K | 5.5% | 1.9% | 3% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 408 | Bryant AR | 22,815 | $83K | 5.6% | 2.6% | 10% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 559 | Bella Vista AR | 34,518 | $88K | 3.6% | 4.0% | 6% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,245 | Hazleton PA | 30,286 | $46K | 25.0% | 5.6% | 10% | C− |
| 1,246 | Spartanburg SC | 39,978 | $52K | 23.8% | 7.4% | 26% | C− |
| 1,247 | Paragould AR | 31,135 | $57K | 17.8% | 7.2% | 45% | C− |
| 1,248 | Reedley CA | 26,982 | $63K | 22.3% | 13.4% | 20% | C− |
| 1,249 | Atwater CA | 32,133 | $64K | 21.0% | 12.3% | 11% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,334 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Paragould, 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 Paragould: questions
What is the median household income in Paragould?
$56,980 (±$3,639) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Paragould?
17.8%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Paragould?
20 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Paragould work?
45% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jonesboro (20%, 19 mi), Little Rock (2%, 139 mi), Batesville (1%, 65 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Paragould walkable?
Paragould is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Paragould without a car?
<1% 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 Paragould, from the people who make the trip.
More of Paragould
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.