Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Fewer people are out of work in Alamo (1.0%) than in 94% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Alamo; the top destination outside it is Jackson (23%, 18 miles). Alamo grades C+ for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 83% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Alamo stands out on work
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Alamo
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Alamo is better than 44% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Alamo’s grade up; household income pulls it down ($54,063, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Alamo could be anywhere from C to B+.
Who leaves Alamo for work, and who comes in
On a workday 871 residents head out to work, 137 work right here, and 1,020 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.15 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 Alamo ends
Where Alamo clocks in
23% of workers
9% 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.
Jobs in Alamo: what the 1,157 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Alamo, 2013 → 2023: 881 → 1,157. 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 Alamo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Alamo spends getting to work: about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Alamo workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,021 commuters (the 10% who work from home are left out). Across Tennessee: 87% 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.
Where in the region Alamo works
About 18% 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.
The commute in Alamo is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Alamo is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.0% across Tennessee.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,130 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). 10.8% of Alamo households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Alamo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,552 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,200, Alamo comes 2,773rd 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 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 211 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,771 | Holly Lake Ranch TX | 2,956 | $70K | 7.0% | 11.4% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,772 | Brooklet GA | 2,525 | $77K | 18.5% | 1.4% | 4% | C+ |
| 2,773 | Alamo TN | 2,354 | $54K | 16.5% | 1.0% | 14% | C+ |
| 2,774 | Greenbush Township MI | 2,150 | $72K | 8.0% | 5.8% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,775 | Banks Township MI | 1,666 | $71K | 4.4% | 4.6% | 11% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,552 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Alamo, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
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 Alamo: questions
What is the median household income in Alamo?
$54,063 (±$18,964) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Alamo?
16.5%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Alamo?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Alamo work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (23%, 18 mi), Bells (9%, 5 mi), Brownsville (4%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Alamo walkable?
Alamo is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Alamo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Alamo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Alamo
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.