Photo: Adam Moss from Tonawanda, New York, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Hamer works elsewhere
For 20% of workers, the job is at home, where South Carolina as a whole has 12%. Hamer has 175 jobs; 337 of its residents have a job. The two grades for Hamer are C− for jobs and income and D− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Hamer stands out on work
A big share show a job far from home
31% 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 ↓
Commutes from Hamer are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 26 across South Carolina. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical South Carolina worker. Time on the road ↓
Home offices are common in Hamer
20% of Hamer workers work from home, against 12% across South Carolina. Time on the road ↓
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 337 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Hamer’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Hamer is better than 21% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Hamer’s grade.
Unemployment (5.1%) is left out: Hamer’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Hamer could be anywhere from D− to A−.
How far it is to work from Hamer
About 31% 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.
Commuting from Hamer: about 19 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hamer workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 462 commuters (the 20% who work from home are left out). Across South Carolina: 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.
Who works in Hamer, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 330 residents head out to work, 7 work right here, and 168 people come in from elsewhere.
About 880 people are in Hamer on a workday afternoon, 16% 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.
17% of working residents work in Dillon
Where Hamer clocks in
17% of workers
8% 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 Hamer, 47% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hamer, 2013 → 2023: 158 → 175. 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 Hamer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most of Hamer commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hamer is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Hamer near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 580 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). 4.7% of Hamer households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hamer’s commuters take a bus or train.
Hamer places 2,091st of 3,133 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 872 | Edisto Beach SC | 1,071 | $86K | 2.5% | 5.8% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 920 | Murphys Estates SC | 1,064 | $90K | 14.6% | 0.0% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 927 | Warrenville SC | 1,042 | $53K | 6.0% | 4.1% | <1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,089 | Converse IN | 1,128 | $66K | 18.9% | 4.6% | 5% | C− |
| 2,090 | Dunlap IA | 1,030 | $49K | 7.2% | 5.7% | 14% | C− |
| 2,091 | Hamer SC | 1,042 | $64K | 16.2% | 5.1% | 2% | C− |
| 2,092 | Leesburg AL | 1,009 | $57K | 10.8% | 2.6% | 5% | C− |
| 2,093 | Greenup IL | 1,330 | $51K | 9.2% | 3.3% | 23% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Hamer, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
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 Hamer: questions
What is the median household income in Hamer?
$64,300 (±$35,337) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hamer?
16.2%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hamer?
19 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hamer work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dillon (17%, 4 mi), Florence (8%, 34 mi), Little Rock (5%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hamer walkable?
Hamer is more walkable than 2% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.7 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hamer 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 Hamer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hamer
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.