Prairie De Ann Battlefield · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 4.0Hardly anyone in Prescott is out of work
The two grades for Prescott are C for jobs and income and C for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 90% of U.S. towns. 0% of workers have no commute at all, 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
Where Prescott stands out on work
Prescott is where the jobs are
Prescott has 1,672 jobs, 1.5 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Prescott workers earn over $40,000 a year
39% of Prescott’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 ↓
Prescott makes and builds things
37% of the jobs based in Prescott are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Prescott residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 30%. The jobs ↓
Few Prescott 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Prescott
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Prescott is better than 30% of U.S. towns, #53 of 123 in Arkansas. Unemployment holds Prescott’s grade up (hardly any, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($48,307, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Prescott could be anywhere from C− to B−.
The daily commute in and out of Prescott
On a workday 720 residents head out to work, 367 work right here, and 1,305 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,500 people are in Prescott on a workday afternoon, 20% more than live here.
1.5 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
Factories, building and farms: 37% of the jobs in Prescott
1,672 jobs are based in Prescott.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prescott, 2013 → 2023: 1,807 → 1,672. 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 Prescott’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Prescott spends getting to work: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prescott workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,405 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.
Where Prescott’s workers come from
Where Prescott clocks in
7% of workers
4% of workers
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.
How far Prescott goes to work
About 24% 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.
Prescott is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Prescott is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns, #75 of 123 in Arkansas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.0% across Arkansas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,405 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). 4.1% of Prescott households have no vehicle (Arkansas 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Prescott’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,000, Prescott ranks 3,212th of 4,618 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 161 | Johnson AR | 3,684 | $96K | 2.2% | 1.2% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 244 | Goshen AR | 2,405 | $150K | 1.7% | 2.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 352 | Salem AR | 2,642 | $74K | 2.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,210 | Franklin Township OH | 3,768 | $63K | 19.1% | 2.3% | 8% | C |
| 3,211 | Poydras LA | 2,260 | $59K | 24.3% | 1.3% | 3% | C |
| 3,212 | Prescott AR | 2,949 | $48K | 20.9% | 0.0% | 34% | C |
| 3,213 | Madison NE | 2,162 | $63K | 15.0% | 3.9% | 9% | C |
| 3,214 | Conneaut Township PA | 3,824 | $71K | 11.5% | 7.0% | 4% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,618 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Prescott, 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 Prescott: questions
What is the median household income in Prescott?
$48,307 (±$8,610) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prescott?
20.9%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Prescott?
21 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prescott work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hope (7%, 15 mi), Texarkana (4%, 43 mi), Little Rock (4%, 87 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Prescott walkable?
Prescott is more walkable than 32% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prescott without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Prescott, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prescott
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.