Pelzer Manufacturing Company and Mill Village Historic District · Photo: Upstateherd · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.2 jobs for every working resident, most of Pelzer works elsewhere
132 jobs are based in Pelzer for 679 working residents. Pelzer grades C for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Pelzer is behind 77% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Pelzer at work: what stands out
How Pelzer earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Pelzer is better than 26% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Pelzer’s grade up (ahead of 72% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (26.9%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (5.7%) is left out: Pelzer’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, Pelzer could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Who works in Pelzer, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 676 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 129 people come in from elsewhere.
About 890 people are in Pelzer on a workday afternoon, 38% 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 Greenville
Where Pelzer clocks in
17% of workers
5% of workers
4% 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 Pelzer’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pelzer, 2013 → 2023: 234 → 132. 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 Pelzer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 30 minutes each way for Pelzer’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pelzer workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 549 commuters (the 5% 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.
Half of Pelzer commutes less than 14 miles
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.
Pelzer is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pelzer is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Pelzer 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 579 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 3.9% of Pelzer households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pelzer’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900, Pelzer comes 3,596th on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 240 | Pimlico SC | 1,765 | $137K | 4.8% | 0.0% | 0% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 467 | Cane Savannah SC | 1,551 | $132K | 4.6% | 11.8% | 0% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 902 | Shell Point SC | 1,439 | $82K | 3.1% | 6.4% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,594 | Elkader IA | 1,183 | $63K | 9.5% | 0.0% | 26% | C |
| 3,595 | Baker MT | 1,776 | $85K | 12.5% | 0.0% | 43% | C |
| 3,596 | Pelzer SC | 1,434 | $58K | 26.9% | 5.7% | <1% | C |
| 3,597 | Gordonsville VA | 1,587 | $62K | 14.1% | 1.5% | 5% | C |
| 3,598 | Stanley VA | 1,704 | $54K | 14.0% | 2.9% | 4% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,877 | 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 Pelzer, the top three, the last and three more from South Carolina.
Work in the towns next to Pelzer
The biggest share goes to West Pelzer (1%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Pelzer workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pelzer | – | C | C+ | 30 min | $58,134 |
| West Pelzer | 1% | C | C+ | 25 min | $53,750 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Pelzer’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 Pelzer: questions
What is the median household income in Pelzer?
$58,134 (±$11,843) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pelzer?
26.9%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pelzer?
30 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pelzer work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greenville (17%, 14 mi), Williamston (5%, 2 mi), Anderson (4%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pelzer walkable?
Pelzer is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 6.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pelzer without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pelzer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pelzer
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.