Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0With 0.2 jobs for every working resident, most of Gates works elsewhere
Working from home is the commute for 5% of workers; Tennessee has 13%. Gates has 52 jobs for 265 working residents. Hardly any work in Gates itself; outside it, Ripley draws the most (21%, 10 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Gates and work: the main findings
Gates is a place people come home to
There are 52 jobs based in Gates, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Gates has about 430 people in it, 33% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Gates workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 35 minutes each way, against 26 across Tennessee. Over a year that’s about 268 hours of commuting, 69 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 265 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The daily commute in and out of Gates
On a workday 263 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 50 people come in from elsewhere.
About 430 people are in Gates on a workday afternoon, 33% 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.
About 35 minutes each way for Gates’ commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gates workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 171 commuters (the 5% 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.
Commuting out of Gates: the destinations
Where Gates clocks in
21% of workers
12% of workers
9% 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 Gates: what the 52 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gates, 2013 → 2023: 117 → 52. 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 Gates’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Gates
About 25% 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.
Gates and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Halls (8%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Gates’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 Gates: questions
What is the median household income in Gates?
$51,146 (±$17,262) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gates?
28.6%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gates?
35 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gates work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Ripley (21%, 10 mi), Dyersburg (12%, 14 mi), Jackson (9%, 34 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Gates without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gates, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gates
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.