Photo: TCP04 · CC BY 4.0At 9.5%, unemployment in Fulton is higher than in 93% of U.S. towns
About one in three stay in Fulton for work; outside it, Columbia is the main destination (17%, 21 miles). The two grades for Fulton are C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Measured by household income, Fulton is behind 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Fulton apart on work
Fulton is where the jobs are
Fulton has 7,071 jobs, 1.6 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Fulton draws workers from far and wide
The 7,071 jobs in Fulton are filled from a wide area. Fulton’s own residents hold 21% and the ten next-biggest home towns 18%; the other 61% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Fulton are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 24 across Missouri. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Missouri worker. Time on the road ↓
The biggest group of Fulton’s workers comes from Columbia
479 of the people who work in Fulton live in Columbia, 21 miles away, more than from any other town. The commute map ↓
Fewer jobs are based in Fulton than ten years ago
Jobs counted in Fulton fell from 9,502 in 2013 to 7,071 in 2023, −26%. That can be real closings or a large employer now reporting its workers at another address; the data can’t tell the two apart. The jobs ↓
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.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Fulton
Job access by car holds Fulton’s grade up (ahead of 54% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fulton could be anywhere from D to B−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Fulton
On a workday 3,084 residents head out to work, 1,466 work right here, and 5,605 people come in from elsewhere.
About 15,000 people are in Fulton on a workday afternoon, 20% 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.
The towns that send workers to Fulton
Where Fulton clocks in
17% of workers
10% of workers
2% 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.
How long Fulton spends getting to work: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fulton workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,980 commuters (the 10% 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.
What Fulton’s employers do
7,071 jobs are based in Fulton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fulton, 2013 → 2023: 9,502 → 7,071. 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 Fulton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Fulton goes to work
About 22% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Fulton
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fulton is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns, #27 of 247 in Missouri. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.2% across Missouri, on an EPA index of 7.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,409 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). 13.2% of Fulton households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Fulton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Fulton is 2,114th of 2,354 U.S. towns of 9,000 to 17,000 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 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Town and Country MO | 11,619 | $233K | 1.7% | 2.5% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 25 | Dardenne Prairie MO | 15,032 | $153K | 1.3% | 1.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,112 | Niles MI | 11,665 | $51K | 17.8% | 10.8% | 13% | C− |
| 2,113 | Bolivar MO | 11,994 | $50K | 18.8% | 4.7% | 28% | C− |
| 2,114 | Fulton MO | 12,853 | $51K | 13.9% | 9.5% | 32% | C− |
| 2,115 | Lewisburg TN | 13,517 | $48K | 19.9% | 5.5% | 30% | C− |
| 2,116 | Detroit Lakes MN | 10,019 | $63K | 16.6% | 6.8% | 56% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,354 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Fulton, 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 Fulton: questions
What is the median household income in Fulton?
$51,429 (±$5,999) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fulton?
13.9%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fulton?
18 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fulton work?
32% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Columbia (17%, 21 mi), Jefferson City (10%, 23 mi), Mexico (2%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fulton walkable?
Fulton is more walkable than 84% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 10% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fulton without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fulton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fulton
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.