Photo: User:Dincher · CC BY-SA 3.0Tar Heel at work: jobs, income and the commute
Home is the office for 3% of workers, against 16% across North Carolina. Only 2% work in Tar Heel itself; outside it, Lumberton draws the most (10%, 15 miles). Working residents average 23 minutes each way, next to 25 for North Carolina and 26 for the U.S.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Who commutes out of Tar Heel, and who commutes in
On a workday 40 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 57 people come in from elsewhere.
About 110 people are in Tar Heel on a workday afternoon, 19% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.41 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.
Where the trip to work from Tar Heel ends
Where Tar Heel clocks in
7% 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.
What work there is in Tar Heel: 58 jobs
58 jobs are based in Tar Heel.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Tar Heel, 2013 → 2023: 1 → 58. 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 Tar Heel’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 23 minutes each way for Tar Heel’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Tar Heel workers work from home, vs 16% across North Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 28 commuters (the 3% 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.
Miles to work from Tar Heel
About 41% 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.
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 Tar Heel: questions
What is the median household income in Tar Heel?
$27,014 (±$6,544) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,388 across North Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Tar Heel?
8.7%, against 13.0% across North Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Tar Heel?
23 minutes each way on average, against 25 across North Carolina and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Tar Heel work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lumberton (10%, 15 mi), Raleigh (7%, 76 mi), Bladenboro (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Tar Heel without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Tar Heel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Tar Heel
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.