Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Most of Drexel commutes out: there are 0.4 jobs for every working resident
For jobs and income Drexel is better than 33% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (D). Drexel has 285 jobs for 672 working residents. 6% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for North Carolina as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Drexel, in brief
The four measures behind Drexel’s grade
Job access by car holds Drexel’s grade up (ahead of 45% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($61,992, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (13.7%) is left out: Drexel’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, Drexel could be anywhere from C− to B.
Drexel’s commute takes about 20 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Drexel workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 748 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across North Carolina: 85% 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.
Who works in Drexel, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 662 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 275 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Drexel on a workday afternoon, 22% 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.
25% of working residents work in Morganton
Where Drexel clocks in
25% of workers
8% of workers
6% 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.
Drexel is a services town
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Drexel, 2013 → 2023: 185 → 285. 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 Drexel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Drexel
About 23% 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.
Drexel is a driving town
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.9% across North Carolina.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 793 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). 4.5% of Drexel households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Drexel’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Drexel is 3,399th of 6,085 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 68 | Governors Club NC | 1,787 | $236K | 0.0% | 8.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 99 | Biltmore Forest NC | 1,469 | $169K | 2.0% | 2.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 161 | Wrightsville Beach NC | 2,397 | $152K | 4.0% | 0.4% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,397 | Lakefield MN | 1,697 | $72K | 10.5% | 0.5% | 21% | C |
| 3,398 | Ash Grove MO | 1,532 | $58K | 11.0% | 4.0% | 8% | C |
| 3,399 | Drexel NC | 1,764 | $62K | 11.7% | 13.7% | 1% | C |
| 3,400 | Yellow Creek Township OH | 1,889 | $66K | 10.6% | 3.8% | 1% | C |
| 3,401 | Summerhill Township PA | 2,231 | $58K | 9.3% | 2.5% | 5% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Drexel, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Around Drexel: the bordering towns
The biggest share goes to Valdese (5%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Drexel’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 Drexel: questions
What is the median household income in Drexel?
$61,992 (±$13,338) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Drexel?
11.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Drexel?
20 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Drexel work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Morganton (25%, 5 mi), Hickory (8%, 16 mi), Charlotte (6%, 58 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Drexel walkable?
Drexel is more walkable than 14% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Drexel without a car?
0% 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 Drexel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Drexel
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.