Glover-McLeod-Garrison House · Photo: Jud McCranie · CC BY-SA 4.0Fair Oaks has higher unemployment (8.4%) than 90% of U.S. towns
Only 2% work in Fair Oaks itself; outside it, Atlanta draws the most (14%, 13 miles). Jobs and income earn Fair Oaks C; getting around on foot earns it B+. Home is the office for 6% of workers, next to 16% for Georgia as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Fair Oaks at work: what stands out
The figures behind Fair Oaks’ Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Fair Oaks is better than 29% of U.S. towns, #156 of 263 in Georgia. Job access by car holds Fair Oaks’ grade up (ahead of 92% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (23.6%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fair Oaks could be anywhere from C− to B−.
What Fair Oaks’ employers do
3,556 jobs are based in Fair Oaks.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fair Oaks, 2013 → 2023: 3,446 → 3,556. 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 Fair Oaks’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Fair Oaks for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,469 residents head out to work, 40 work right here, and 3,516 people come in from elsewhere.
About 10,000 people are in Fair Oaks on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.42 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 towns that employ Fair Oaks’ residents
Where Fair Oaks clocks in
14% of workers
12% 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.
Fair Oaks’ commute takes about 27 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fair Oaks workers work from home, vs 16% across Georgia. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,127 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Georgia: 84% 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.
Fair Oaks’ commute, mile by mile
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.
Most trips from Fair Oaks start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fair Oaks is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns, #75 of 263 in Georgia. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.1% across Georgia.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,382 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 89% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 20% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 7.2 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 89% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 10.4% of Fair Oaks households have no vehicle (Georgia 5.9%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Fair Oaks’ commuters take a bus or train.
Fair Oaks next to U.S. towns of 6,300 to 12,200: 2,256th of 2,891 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 48 | Tyrone GA | 8,091 | $136K | 2.4% | 1.3% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 426 | Temple GA | 6,564 | $91K | 2.6% | 1.0% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 590 | Druid Hills GA | 8,169 | $130K | 9.3% | 3.6% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,254 | Irondale GA | 9,185 | $55K | 19.2% | 6.2% | <1% | C |
| 2,255 | Lapeer MI | 9,201 | $53K | 24.5% | 3.6% | 18% | C |
| 2,256 | Fair Oaks GA | 9,014 | $63K | 23.6% | 8.4% | 2% | C |
| 2,257 | Parsons KS | 9,315 | $52K | 20.9% | 2.2% | 54% | C |
| 2,258 | Crookston MN | 7,375 | $57K | 15.6% | 3.4% | 59% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 2,891 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Fair Oaks, the top three, the last and three more from Georgia.
Work next door: 17% of Fair Oaks’ workers
The biggest share goes to Marietta (12%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Fair Oaks’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Fair Oaks: questions
What is the median household income in Fair Oaks?
$62,996 (±$8,687) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $77,353 across Georgia and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fair Oaks?
23.6%, against 13.4% across Georgia and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fair Oaks?
27 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Georgia and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fair Oaks work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Atlanta (14%, 13 mi), Marietta (12%, 2 mi), Smyrna (5%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fair Oaks walkable?
Fair Oaks is more walkable than 69% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 12.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fair Oaks without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 20% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fair Oaks, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fair Oaks
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.