Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Dyer has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Measured by household income, Dyer is behind 82% of U.S. towns. 426 jobs are based in Dyer, against 954 working residents. Dyer grades D 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
Dyer and work: the main findings
Dyer’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Dyer is Jackson, 30 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (125) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Dyer
51% of Dyer residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 31% of the jobs based in Dyer pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 91% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
43% of the jobs in Dyer are in trade, transport and utilities, against 24% of the jobs its residents hold. 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; with 954 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Dyer
On income, poverty and job access, Dyer is better than 13% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Dyer’s grade.
Unemployment (2.5%) is left out: Dyer’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, Dyer could be anywhere from D to C.
How many miles Dyer commutes
About 20% 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 kinds of work in Dyer
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Dyer, 2013 → 2023: 561 → 426. 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 Dyer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who commutes out of Dyer, and who commutes in
On a workday 872 residents head out to work, 82 work right here, and 344 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,800 people are in Dyer on a workday afternoon, 23% 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.
13% of working residents work in Jackson
Where Dyer clocks in
13% of workers
12% of workers
6% 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.
The daily trip from Dyer: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Dyer workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 876 commuters (the 0% 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.
Few in Dyer walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Dyer is more walkable than 7% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Dyer 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 876 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). 5.6% of Dyer households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Dyer’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Dyer is 4,407th of 5,328 U.S. towns of 1,600 to 3,100
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 54 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 195 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 4,405 | Rushville IL | 2,857 | $58K | 12.6% | 7.1% | 23% | D |
| 4,406 | Pageland SC | 2,518 | $43K | 20.0% | 6.2% | 12% | D |
| 4,407 | Dyer TN | 2,333 | $55K | 16.7% | 2.5% | 9% | D |
| 4,408 | Van Buren Township IN | 1,779 | $55K | 23.9% | 11.2% | 3% | D |
| 4,409 | Lisle NY | 2,642 | $69K | 20.0% | 9.6% | 4% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,328 | 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 Dyer, 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 Dyer: questions
What is the median household income in Dyer?
$54,766 (±$18,293) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Dyer?
16.7%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Dyer?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 0% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Dyer work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (13%, 30 mi), Trenton (12%, 7 mi), Humboldt (6%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Dyer walkable?
Dyer is more walkable than 7% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Dyer without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Dyer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Dyer
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.