Hagood Mill · Photo: Bill Fitzpatrick · CC BY-SA 3.0Fewer people are out of work in Pickens (1.3%) than in 92% of U.S. towns
Pickens grades B− for jobs and income and C+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Pickens is behind 81% of U.S. towns. Home is the office for 2% of workers, next to 12% for South Carolina as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Pickens stands out on work
Pickens’ Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Pickens is better than 46% of U.S. towns, #66 of 168 in South Carolina. Unemployment holds Pickens’ grade up; household income pulls it down ($55,000, U.S. $80,734). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Pickens could be anywhere from C to B+.
How long Pickens spends getting to work: about 30 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Pickens workers work from home, vs 12% across South Carolina. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,376 commuters (the 2% 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.
Pickens on a workday afternoon
On a workday 1,355 residents head out to work, 87 work right here, and 1,785 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,600 people are in Pickens on a workday afternoon, 13% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.30 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.
14% of working residents work in Greenville
Where Pickens clocks in
14% of workers
2% 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.
Inside Pickens’ 1,872 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Pickens, 2013 → 2023: 2,053 → 1,872. 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 Pickens’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Pickens
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.
Most trips from Pickens start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Pickens is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns, #116 of 169 in South Carolina. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.4% across South Carolina.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,402 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). 13.8% of Pickens households have no vehicle (South Carolina 5.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Pickens’ commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,300, Pickens ranks 2,504th of 4,698 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 96 | India Hook SC | 3,960 | $107K | 1.2% | 0.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 507 | Golden Grove SC | 2,913 | $73K | 3.1% | 1.6% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 666 | Keowee Key SC | 3,351 | $125K | 2.1% | 2.6% | 7% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,502 | Baldwin GA | 4,240 | $59K | 20.2% | 0.7% | 4% | B− |
| 2,503 | Pawnee IL | 2,686 | $81K | 14.3% | 4.2% | 7% | B− |
| 2,504 | Pickens SC | 3,188 | $55K | 16.7% | 1.3% | 6% | B− |
| 2,505 | Leeds ME | 2,406 | $85K | 19.8% | 2.6% | 4% | B− |
| 2,506 | Dora AL | 2,223 | $62K | 18.3% | 2.3% | 3% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,698 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Pickens, 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 Pickens: questions
What is the median household income in Pickens?
$55,000 (±$18,294) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,324 across South Carolina and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Pickens?
16.7%, against 14.1% across South Carolina and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Pickens?
30 minutes each way on average, against 26 across South Carolina and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Pickens work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Greenville (14%, 20 mi), Easley (7%, 8 mi), Anderson (2%, 26 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Pickens walkable?
Pickens is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Pickens without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Pickens, from the people who make the trip.
More of Pickens
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.