Rhea County Courthouse · Photo: Calvin Beale · Public domainDayton has lower unemployment (1.3%) than 92% of U.S. towns
About two in five work in Dayton; the top destination outside it is Chattanooga (16%, 33 miles). Jobs and income earn Dayton C+; getting around on foot earns it B−. Household incomes here are lower than in 88% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Dayton apart on work
Dayton is where the jobs are
Dayton has 7,827 jobs, 2.7 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 13,000 people are in town, 63% more than the 7,800 who live here. Day and night ↓
Dayton draws workers from far and wide
The 7,827 jobs in Dayton are filled from a wide area. Dayton’s own residents hold 15% and the ten next-biggest home towns 13%; the other 72% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Dayton’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Dayton is Chattanooga, 33 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (475) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Dayton makes and builds things
37% of the jobs based in Dayton are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Dayton residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 32%. The jobs ↓
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.
What’s behind Dayton’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Dayton is better than 38% of U.S. towns, #87 of 177 in Tennessee. Unemployment holds Dayton’s grade up; the poverty rate pulls it down (22.2%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Dayton could be anywhere from C− to B−.
The daily flow of workers through Dayton
On a workday 1,758 residents head out to work, 1,146 work right here, and 6,681 people come in from elsewhere.
About 13,000 people are in Dayton on a workday afternoon, 63% more than live here.
2.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Commuting in to Dayton: where workers come from
Where Dayton clocks in
16% of workers
3% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Dayton
About 22% 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.
Goods jobs make up 37% of work in Dayton
7,827 jobs are based in Dayton.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dayton, 2013 → 2023: 6,814 → 7,827. 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 Dayton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Dayton: about 22 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dayton workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,928 commuters (the 9% 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.
In Dayton, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dayton is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns, #55 of 177 in Tennessee. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.8% 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 3,218 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). 10.9% of Dayton households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dayton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Dayton is 2,065th among 3,026 U.S. towns of 5,500 to 10,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 221 | Signal Mountain TN | 8,824 | $141K | 3.3% | 2.4% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 333 | Harrison TN | 8,011 | $89K | 3.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 375 | Tellico Village TN | 7,414 | $107K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,063 | North Weeki Wachee FL | 8,979 | $65K | 11.7% | 4.0% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,064 | Richmond Heights OH | 10,475 | $61K | 9.9% | 11.2% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,065 | Dayton TN | 7,819 | $50K | 22.2% | 1.3% | 39% | C+ |
| 2,066 | Strasburg VA | 7,380 | $62K | 7.5% | 5.5% | 9% | C+ |
| 2,067 | Brookfield Township OH | 8,348 | $53K | 15.1% | 3.9% | 9% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,026 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Dayton, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
Around Dayton: the bordering towns
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Dayton workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dayton | – | C+ | B− | 22 min | $49,719 |
| Graysville | under 1% | D | D | 25 min | $40,000 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Dayton’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 Dayton: questions
What is the median household income in Dayton?
$49,719 (±$10,249) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dayton?
22.2%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dayton?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dayton work?
39% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chattanooga (16%, 33 mi), Nashville (4%, 110 mi), Cleveland (3%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dayton walkable?
Dayton is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dayton 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 Dayton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dayton
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.