Photo: Arthur Public Library · CC BY 2.5There are 2.3 jobs in Arthur for every working resident, and 2,038 people commute in
Household incomes here are lower than in 81% of U.S. towns. Employers in Arthur report 2,264 jobs, and 964 of its residents work somewhere. Arthur grades D for jobs and income and A− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Arthur, in brief
Arthur is where the jobs are
Arthur has 2,264 jobs, 2.4 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 3,600 people are in town, 57% more than the 2,300 who live here. Day and night ↓
Arthur makes and builds things
68% of the jobs based in Arthur are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Arthur residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 42%. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Arthur are quick
The average trip to work takes 15 minutes, against 28 across Illinois. That’s about 100 hours a year less on the road than the typical Illinois worker. 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 964 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Arthur’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Arthur is better than 15% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Arthur’s grade up (ahead of 38% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (19.2%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (6.3%) is left out: Arthur’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, Arthur could be anywhere from D to C.
Who works in Arthur, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 738 residents head out to work and 226 work right here.
About 3,600 people are in Arthur on a workday afternoon, 57% more than live here.
2.3 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: 68% of the jobs in Arthur
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Arthur, 2013 → 2023: 2,020 → 2,264. 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 Arthur’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily trip from Arthur: about 15 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 4.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Arthur workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 766 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Where Arthur’s workers come from
Where Arthur clocks in
4% of workers
3% 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.
The commute from Arthur, by distance
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.
In Arthur, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Arthur is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 16.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 862 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). 10.4% of Arthur households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Arthur’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,328 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100, Arthur comes 4,288th 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | Prestbury IL | 2,045 | $165K | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 61 | Wayne IL | 2,278 | $162K | 2.1% | 2.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,286 | Bono AR | 2,858 | $56K | 17.1% | 10.8% | 3% | D |
| 4,287 | Mulberry AR | 1,635 | $50K | 16.4% | 0.0% | 5% | D |
| 4,288 | Arthur IL | 2,261 | $55K | 19.2% | 6.3% | 23% | D |
| 4,289 | Curwensville PA | 2,473 | $56K | 14.8% | 6.9% | 14% | D |
| 4,290 | Lewisport KY | 1,747 | $56K | 21.3% | 5.0% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Arthur, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
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 Arthur: questions
What is the median household income in Arthur?
$54,907 (±$12,683) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Arthur?
19.2%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Arthur?
15 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Arthur work?
23% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bourbon Township (12%, 3 mi), Sullivan (4%, 11 mi), Tuscola (3%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Arthur walkable?
Arthur is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 17% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Arthur without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Arthur, from the people who make the trip.
More of Arthur
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.