Photo: Skye Marthaler · CC BY-SA 3.0Fewer people are out of work in Dexter (1.4%) than in 91% of U.S. towns
4% of workers have no commute at all, next to 13% for Missouri as a whole. Dexter grades C+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Dexter stands out on work
Inside Dexter’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Dexter is better than 35% of U.S. towns, #136 of 247 in Missouri. Unemployment holds Dexter’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($51,701, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dexter could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Commuting from Dexter: about 21 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dexter workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,095 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Missouri: 86% 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.
Dexter fills up on a workday
On a workday 2,107 residents head out to work, 1,043 work right here, and 3,565 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,300 people are in Dexter on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.46 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.
7% of working residents work in Sikeston
Where Dexter clocks in
7% 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.
The kinds of work in Dexter
4,608 jobs are based in Dexter.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dexter, 2013 → 2023: 5,368 → 4,608. 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 Dexter’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Half of Dexter commutes less than 15 miles
About 19% 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.
Getting around Dexter: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dexter is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns, #163 of 247 in Missouri. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.2% across Missouri.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,218 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 Dexter households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Dexter’s commuters take a bus or train.
Dexter next to U.S. towns of 5,500 to 10,600: 2,149th of 3,026 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,147 | Princeton WV | 5,578 | $44K | 16.9% | 1.6% | 26% | C+ |
| 2,148 | Madison Township OH | 6,468 | $59K | 16.1% | 1.5% | 21% | C+ |
| 2,149 | Dexter MO | 7,851 | $52K | 17.0% | 1.4% | 33% | C+ |
| 2,150 | Bedford VA | 7,911 | $70K | 12.2% | 5.1% | 27% | C+ |
| 2,151 | Franklin Township PA | 6,653 | $68K | 13.3% | 4.1% | 18% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,026 | 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 Dexter, the top three, the last and three more from Missouri.
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 Dexter: questions
What is the median household income in Dexter?
$51,701 (±$4,954) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dexter?
17.0%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dexter?
21 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dexter work?
33% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Sikeston (7%, 22 mi), Poplar Bluff (6%, 25 mi), Dudley (4%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dexter walkable?
Dexter is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dexter 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 Dexter, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dexter
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.