Dillard B. and Georgia Sewell House · Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D. · CC BY-SA 4.0Most of Etowah commutes out: there are 0.5 jobs for every working resident
Employers in Etowah report 1,442 jobs, and 2,879 of its residents work somewhere. Etowah grades B− for jobs and income and D for walkability. Home is the office for 6% of workers; North Carolina has 16%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Etowah: the figures worth knowing
Jobs & income in Etowah: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Etowah is better than 45% of U.S. towns, #144 of 290 in North Carolina. Unemployment holds Etowah’s grade up (2.8%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (14.4%, U.S. 12.5%).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Etowah could be anywhere from D to A−.
The kinds of work in Etowah
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Etowah, 2013 → 2023: 672 → 1,442. 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 Etowah’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Etowah by day and by night
On a workday 2,692 residents head out to work, 187 work right here, and 1,255 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,500 people are in Etowah on a workday afternoon, 18% 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.
18% of working residents work in Asheville
Where Etowah clocks in
11% 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.
The daily trip from Etowah: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Etowah workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,229 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.
How far Etowah’s workers travel
About 21% 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.
Getting around Etowah: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Etowah is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns, #260 of 290 in North Carolina. 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 3,453 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). 2.9% of Etowah households have no vehicle (North Carolina 5.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Etowah’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,015 U.S. towns of 5,600 to 10,800, Etowah comes 1,897th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 195 | Oak Ridge NC | 7,896 | $155K | 3.6% | 2.5% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 369 | Ogden NC | 8,249 | $121K | 4.8% | 1.4% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 409 | Stokesdale NC | 6,133 | $121K | 5.6% | 1.9% | 4% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,895 | Haiku-Pauwela HI | 9,178 | $101K | 8.3% | 5.7% | 9% | B− |
| 1,896 | Belfast ME | 6,988 | $68K | 16.0% | 0.6% | 46% | B− |
| 1,897 | Etowah NC | 7,968 | $73K | 14.4% | 2.8% | 6% | B− |
| 1,898 | Greenbrier AR | 6,645 | $57K | 10.1% | 3.3% | 11% | B− |
| 1,899 | Lake Park FL | 9,125 | $71K | 10.8% | 7.9% | 5% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,015 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Etowah, the top three, the last and three more from North Carolina.
Etowah and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Mills River (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Etowah workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etowah | – | B− | D | 26 min | $72,596 |
| Mills River | 5% | A | C− | 21 min | $105,398 |
| Horse Shoe | under 2% | B | C− | 23 min | $64,096 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Etowah’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 Etowah: questions
What is the median household income in Etowah?
$72,596 (±$27,415) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Etowah?
14.4%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Etowah?
26 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 Etowah work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Asheville (18%, 18 mi), Hendersonville (11%, 8 mi), Brevard (5%, 9 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Etowah walkable?
Etowah is more walkable than 15% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 6.1 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Etowah 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 Etowah, from the people who make the trip.
More of Etowah
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.