Households in Slater have lower incomes than those in 96% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers, where Missouri as a whole has 13%. Below the poverty line: 34.0% of residents; Missouri has 12.6%. Jobs and income earn Slater D−; getting around on foot earns it B+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Slater: the gist
Slater and Marshall trade workers both ways
Marshall is the top workplace for Slater residents (21%) and also where the most people who work in Slater come from (13% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Slater makes and builds things
56% of the jobs based in Slater are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Slater residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 33%. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
30% 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 800 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Slater
On income, poverty and job access, Slater is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Slater’s grade.
Unemployment (1.9%) is left out: Slater’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, Slater could be anywhere from D− to D.
21% of working residents work in Marshall
Where Slater clocks in
21% of workers
6% of workers
5% 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.
In Slater, 56% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
488 jobs are based in Slater.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Slater, 2013 → 2023: 298 → 488. 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 Slater’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Slater
About 30% 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.
Slater by day and by night
On a workday 633 residents head out to work, 167 work right here, and 321 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Slater on a workday afternoon, 17% fewer than live here.
0.61 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Commuting from Slater: about 20 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Slater workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 713 commuters (the 2% 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.
Slater is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Slater is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 7.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.2% across Missouri, 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 730 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). 21.6% of Slater households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Slater’s commuters take a bus or train.
Slater 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,560 | Russell WI | 1,644 | $48K | 31.0% | 11.4% | 22% | D− |
| 5,561 | Lake Kerr FL | 1,697 | $42K | 23.3% | 20.9% | 4% | D− |
| 5,562 | Slater MO | 1,824 | $39K | 34.0% | 1.9% | 21% | D− |
| 5,563 | Houston MO | 2,281 | $40K | 30.0% | 8.8% | 32% | D− |
| 5,564 | Lovelock NV | 1,771 | $42K | 25.6% | 9.2% | 20% | 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 Slater, 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 Slater: questions
What is the median household income in Slater?
$39,479 (±$21,084) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Slater?
34.0%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Slater?
20 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Slater work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Marshall (21%, 10 mi), Columbia (6%, 44 mi), Kansas City (5%, 80 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Slater walkable?
Slater is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Slater without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 22% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Slater, from the people who make the trip.
More of Slater
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.