Photo: Drowzy at English Wikipedia · Public domainHousehold incomes in Piedmont are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
49.0% of residents live below the poverty line, against 12.6% across Missouri. Piedmont grades D− for jobs and income and C− for walkability. About one in four work in Piedmont itself; outside it, Poplar Bluff draws the most (7%, 31 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Piedmont
Fewer than half of Piedmont workers earn over $40,000 a year
40% of Piedmont’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
31% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
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 646 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The figures behind Piedmont’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Piedmont is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Piedmont’s grade.
Unemployment (8.2%) is left out: Piedmont’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Piedmont stays D−.
The kinds of work in Piedmont
760 jobs are based in Piedmont.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Piedmont, 2013 → 2023: 896 → 760. 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 Piedmont’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Piedmont to work
About 31% 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.
Piedmont by day and by night
On a workday 468 residents head out to work, 178 work right here, and 582 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.18 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 places Piedmont commutes to
Where Piedmont clocks in
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.
From Piedmont, about 24 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Piedmont workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 794 commuters (the 8% 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.
For most of Piedmont, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Piedmont is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% 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 867 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). 11.2% of Piedmont households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Piedmont’s commuters take a bus or train.
Piedmont and other U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500
| # | 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Warson Woods MO | 1,990 | $207K | 1.3% | 1.8% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 55 | Weatherby Lake MO | 2,139 | $153K | 3.4% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 56 | Lake Winnebago MO | 1,869 | $179K | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,631 | Beattyville KY | 2,114 | $23K | 42.2% | 14.5% | 26% | D− |
| 5,632 | Zwolle LA | 1,605 | $28K | 42.0% | 9.7% | 9% | D− |
| 5,633 | Piedmont MO | 1,862 | $40K | 49.0% | 8.2% | 28% | D− |
| 5,634 | Jal NM | 2,178 | — | 32.0% | 18.8% | 44% | D− |
| 5,635 | Scotland Neck NC | 1,586 | $19K | 44.8% | 14.5% | 13% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | 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 Piedmont, 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 Piedmont: questions
What is the median household income in Piedmont?
$40,019 (±$8,769) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Piedmont?
49.0%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Piedmont?
24 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Piedmont work?
28% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Poplar Bluff (7%, 31 mi), Greenville (4%, 14 mi), Cape Girardeau (3%, 64 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Piedmont walkable?
Piedmont is more walkable than 22% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Piedmont without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Piedmont, from the people who make the trip.
More of Piedmont
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.