Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Fincastle has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.1 for each
Jobs and income earn Fincastle D; getting around on foot earns it D−. Employers in Fincastle report 98 jobs, and 689 of its residents work somewhere. Household incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Fincastle, in brief
Fincastle is a place people come home to
There are 98 jobs based in Fincastle, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Fincastle has about 780 people in it, 43% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Fincastle and La Follette trade workers both ways
La Follette is the top workplace for Fincastle residents (16%) and also where the most people who work in Fincastle come from (14% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
Fincastle workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 34 minutes each way, against 26 across Tennessee. Over a year that’s about 261 hours of commuting, 61 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
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 689 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Fincastle earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Fincastle is better than 6% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Fincastle’s grade.
Unemployment (4.5%) is left out: Fincastle’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, Fincastle could be anywhere from D− to C+.
How a workday changes Fincastle
On a workday 680 residents head out to work, 9 work right here, and 89 people come in from elsewhere.
About 780 people are in Fincastle on a workday afternoon, 43% 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.
16% of working residents work in La Follette
Where Fincastle clocks in
16% of workers
12% of workers
10% 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.
About 34 minutes to work from Fincastle
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fincastle workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 490 commuters (the 11% 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.
Jobs in Fincastle: what the 98 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fincastle, 2013 → 2023: 55 → 98. 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 Fincastle’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Fincastle
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.
Most of Fincastle commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fincastle is near the bottom of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Fincastle 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 548 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). 6.4% of Fincastle households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Fincastle’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Fincastle is 5,195th of 5,877 U.S. towns of 1,000 to 1,900
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 422 | Rossville TN | 1,215 | $120K | 7.3% | 6.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 472 | Berry Hill TN | 1,864 | $80K | 11.2% | 3.1% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 910 | Orlinda TN | 1,028 | $84K | 6.4% | 3.1% | 2% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,193 | Sprigg Township OH | 1,767 | $58K | 18.0% | 13.5% | <1% | D |
| 5,194 | Susitna North AK | 1,566 | $55K | 15.7% | 11.3% | — | D |
| 5,195 | Fincastle TN | 1,374 | $52K | 18.6% | 4.5% | 1% | D |
| 5,196 | Basin City WA | 1,176 | $60K | 20.0% | 25.9% | 4% | D |
| 5,197 | Mansfield AR | 1,066 | $53K | 23.5% | 6.8% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 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 Fincastle, 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 Fincastle: questions
What is the median household income in Fincastle?
$51,591 (±$24,646) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fincastle?
18.6%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fincastle?
34 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fincastle work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are La Follette (16%, 5 mi), Knoxville (12%, 30 mi), Clinton (10%, 22 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Fincastle walkable?
Fincastle is near the bottom of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 3.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fincastle 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 Fincastle, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fincastle
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.