Photo: Drew Jacksich from San Jose, CA, The Republic of California · CC BY 2.0With 0.2 jobs for every working resident, most of Mescal works elsewhere
133 jobs are based in Mescal for 560 working residents. Mescal grades D for jobs and income and D− for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 81% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Mescal, in a few figures
Mescal’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Mescal is Tucson, 29 miles away as the crow flies. 24% of working residents (137) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Mescal is a place people come home to
There are 133 jobs based in Mescal, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. Day and night ↓
A lot of Mescal works from home
27% of Mescal workers work from home, against 18% across Arizona. 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; with 560 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Mescal
On income, poverty and job access, Mescal is better than 14% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Mescal’s grade up (12.4%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 14% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (3.9%) is left out: Mescal’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, Mescal could be anywhere from D− to C+.
Near or far: the trip to work from Mescal
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.
Mescal quiets down on a workday
On a workday 547 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 120 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Mescal on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Time on the road from Mescal: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mescal workers work from home, vs 18% across Arizona. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 394 commuters (the 27% who work from home are left out). Across Arizona: 82% 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.
24% of working residents work in Tucson
Where Mescal clocks in
24% of workers
17% of workers
8% 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.
What Mescal’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mescal, 2013 → 2023: 56 → 133. 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 Mescal’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Mescal is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mescal is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Mescal 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 539 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). 6.1% of Mescal households have no vehicle (Arizona 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mescal’s commuters take a bus or train.
Mescal is 4,769th of 6,085 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 973 | Fort Valley AZ | 1,761 | $126K | 5.2% | 0.6% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,207 | Centennial Park AZ | 1,839 | $168K | 3.5% | 2.5% | 31% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,230 | Bellemont AZ | 1,701 | $120K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,767 | Chelsea VT | 1,252 | $66K | 14.3% | 1.0% | 8% | D |
| 4,768 | Meenon WI | 1,251 | $63K | 13.3% | 6.4% | 7% | D |
| 4,769 | Mescal AZ | 1,760 | $55K | 12.4% | 3.9% | 2% | D |
| 4,770 | Veedersburg IN | 2,117 | $58K | 17.1% | 5.5% | 9% | D |
| 4,771 | Wesson MS | 1,769 | $65K | 27.5% | 5.2% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | 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 Mescal, the top three, the last and three more from Arizona.
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 Mescal: questions
What is the median household income in Mescal?
$55,417 (±$13,125) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $79,964 across Arizona and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mescal?
12.4%, against 12.5% across Arizona and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mescal?
30 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Arizona and 26 nationally. 27% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mescal work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Tucson (24%, 28 mi), Benson (17%, 7 mi), Phoenix (8%, 147 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mescal walkable?
Mescal is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mescal without a car?
0% 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 Mescal, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mescal
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.