Middle Fork of the Little Red River Bridge · Photo: Valis55 · CC BY-SA 3.0Work, pay and getting to work in Shirley
Employers in Shirley report 93 jobs, and 57 of its residents work somewhere. Only 7% work in Shirley; the top destination outside it is Clinton (16%, 9 miles). Commuters spend 35 minutes getting to work on average, where Arkansas has 23 and the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Shirley on a workday afternoon
On a workday 53 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 89 people come in from elsewhere.
About 290 people are in Shirley on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
1.6 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.
Who travels to work in Shirley, and from where
Where Shirley clocks in
16% of workers
5% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Shirley, 2013 → 2023: 144 → 93. 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 Shirley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 35 minutes in Shirley
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Shirley workers work from home, vs 9% across Arkansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 101 commuters (the 3% 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.
Shirley’s commute, mile by mile
About 25% 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 Shirley: questions
What is the median household income in Shirley?
$37,344 (±$23,781) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,773 across Arkansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Shirley?
27.5%, against 16.0% across Arkansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Shirley?
35 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Arkansas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Shirley work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Clinton (16%, 9 mi), Fairfield Bay (16%, 4 mi), Conway (5%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Shirley without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Shirley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Shirley
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.