Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0Palmer has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.2 for each
At home: 4% of workers have no commute at all (Tennessee 13%). There are 29 jobs in Palmer, against 167 working residents. Hardly any stay in Palmer for work; outside it, Chattanooga is the main destination (16%, 27 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The daily commute in and out of Palmer
On a workday 166 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 28 people come in from elsewhere.
About 450 people are in Palmer on a workday afternoon, 24% 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.
Where people from Palmer work
Where Palmer clocks in
16% 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 Palmer’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Palmer, 2013 → 2023: 73 → 29. 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 Palmer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 40 minutes each way for Palmer’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Palmer workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 272 commuters (the 4% 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.
How far it is to work from Palmer
About 28% 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.
Work in the towns next to Palmer
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Palmer workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palmer | – | — | — | 40 min | $56,447 |
| Gruetli-Laager | under 2% | D | D | 34 min | $47,313 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Palmer’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 Palmer: questions
What is the median household income in Palmer?
$56,447 (±$2,455) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Palmer?
14.7%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Palmer?
40 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Palmer work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Chattanooga (16%, 27 mi), Altamont (11%, 11 mi), Nashville (5%, 88 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Palmer without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Palmer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Palmer
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.