Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0Most of Hunter commutes out: there are 0.1 jobs for every working resident
There are 70 jobs in Hunter, against 680 working residents. Jobs and income earn Hunter C; getting around on foot earns it D−. Measured by household income, Hunter is behind 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Hunter stands out on work
The four measures behind Hunter’s grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Hunter is better than 30% of U.S. towns. Unemployment holds Hunter’s grade up (4.1%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($51,815, U.S. $80,734).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Hunter could be anywhere from D to A−.
How a workday changes Hunter
On a workday 667 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 57 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Hunter on a workday afternoon, 32% 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.
24% of working residents work in Johnson City
Where Hunter clocks in
24% of workers
23% of workers
7% 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.
What Hunter’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hunter, 2013 → 2023: 193 → 70. 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 Hunter’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Hunter takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hunter workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 993 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.
Half of Hunter commutes less than 13 miles
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.
In Hunter, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hunter is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Hunter 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 1,046 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). 1.2% of Hunter households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hunter’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,921 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,600, Hunter comes 3,584th 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 67 | Lookout Mountain TN | 2,044 | $201K | 2.3% | 0.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 206 | Walden TN | 1,965 | $124K | 3.1% | 4.1% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 243 | Fairmount TN | 2,110 | $137K | 3.7% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,582 | North Norwich NY | 1,645 | $78K | 12.3% | 3.1% | 2% | C |
| 3,583 | Fremont WI | 1,363 | $78K | 12.6% | 6.2% | 5% | C |
| 3,584 | Hunter TN | 1,918 | $52K | 13.7% | 4.1% | 2% | C |
| 3,585 | Trappe MD | 1,517 | $61K | 9.3% | 9.0% | 2% | C |
| 3,586 | Tioga ND | 2,221 | $66K | 8.0% | 2.9% | 28% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,921 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Hunter, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
23% of Hunter works in a town next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Hunter workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter | – | C | D− | 26 min | $51,815 |
| Elizabethton | 23% | C− | B | 21 min | $46,975 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Elizabethton. Darker towns draw more of Hunter’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 Hunter: questions
What is the median household income in Hunter?
$51,815 (±$18,883) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hunter?
13.7%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hunter?
26 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hunter work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Johnson City (24%, 14 mi), Elizabethton (23%, 6 mi), Kingsport (7%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hunter walkable?
Hunter is more walkable than 4% of U.S. towns (Walkability D−): an EPA walkability index of 4.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hunter without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hunter, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hunter
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.