Mississippi Mills Packing and Shipping Rooms · Photo: Forrest Lamar Cooper · Public domainMost of Wesson commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
There are 277 jobs in Wesson, against 676 working residents. For jobs and income Wesson is better than 14% of U.S. towns (D); for walkability it is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (B). Only 6% stay in Wesson for work; outside it, Brookhaven is the main destination (16%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Wesson at work: what stands out
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Wesson
Household income holds Wesson’s grade up ($65,179, U.S. $80,734); the poverty rate pulls it down (27.5%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (5.2%) is left out: Wesson’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, Wesson could be anywhere from D to C+.
What Wesson’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Wesson, 2013 → 2023: 638 → 277. 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 Wesson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Wesson
On a workday 635 residents head out to work, 41 work right here, and 236 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Wesson on a workday afternoon, 23% fewer than live here.
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 employ Wesson’s residents
Where Wesson clocks in
16% of workers
9% of workers
7% 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.
Each way, about 30 minutes from Wesson
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Wesson workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 695 commuters (the 10% who work from home are left out). Across Mississippi: 87% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Wesson
About 28% 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.
For most of Wesson, work means a drive
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 771 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). 3.2% of Wesson households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Wesson’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400, Wesson ranks 4,771st of 6,085 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,875 | Lynchburg MS | 2,161 | $89K | 7.1% | 10.2% | <1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,891 | DeLisle MS | 1,906 | $72K | 7.2% | 3.9% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,927 | Sumrall MS | 2,299 | $70K | 4.4% | 6.9% | 5% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,769 | Mescal AZ | 1,760 | $55K | 12.4% | 3.9% | 2% | D |
| 4,770 | Veedersburg IN | 2,117 | $58K | 17.1% | 5.5% | 9% | D |
| 4,771 | Wesson MS | 1,769 | $65K | 27.5% | 5.2% | 6% | D |
| 4,772 | Marceline MO | 2,116 | $63K | 19.4% | 5.2% | 32% | D |
| 4,773 | Port Byron NY | 1,215 | $49K | 24.6% | 5.0% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 6,085 | 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 Wesson, the top three, the last and three more from Mississippi.
Next door to Wesson
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Wesson workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wesson | – | D | B | 30 min | $65,179 |
| Beauregard | under 2% | — | — | 28 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Beauregard: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Wesson’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Wesson: questions
What is the median household income in Wesson?
$65,179 (±$17,258) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Wesson?
27.5%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Wesson?
30 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Wesson work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Brookhaven (16%, 9 mi), Jackson (9%, 44 mi), Hazlehurst (7%, 11 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Wesson walkable?
Wesson is more walkable than 63% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.3 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Wesson without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Wesson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Wesson
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.