Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0At 15.6%, unemployment in Trenton is among the highest of any U.S. town
At home: 3% of workers have no commute at all (Tennessee 13%). Jobs and income earn Trenton D; getting around on foot earns it C+. Measured by household income, Trenton is behind 76% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Trenton, in a few figures
Trenton is where the jobs are
Trenton has 2,844 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Trenton’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Trenton is Jackson, 23 miles away as the crow flies. 18% of working residents (287) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Trenton workers work from home
Only 3% of workers work from home, against 13% across Tennessee. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Why Trenton gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Trenton is better than 8% of U.S. towns, #160 of 177 in Tennessee. Job access by car holds Trenton’s grade up (ahead of 41% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Trenton could be anywhere from D− to C−.
A workday in Trenton: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 1,228 residents head out to work, 344 work right here, and 2,500 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,400 people are in Trenton on a workday afternoon, 31% more than live here.
1.8 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Miles to work from Trenton
About 22% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The daily trip from Trenton: about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Trenton workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,391 commuters (the 3% 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.
The daily trip into Trenton
Where Trenton clocks in
18% of workers
6% of workers
5% 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 work there is in Trenton: 2,844 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Trenton, 2014 → 2024: 2,498 → 2,844. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Trenton’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most trips from Trenton start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Trenton is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns, #93 of 177 in Tennessee. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 2.0% across Tennessee.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,428 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). 14.9% of Trenton households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Trenton’s commuters take a bus or train.
Trenton and other U.S. towns of 2,900 to 5,600
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Oak Hill TN | 4,581 | $216K | 1.2% | 1.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 58 | Forest Hills TN | 4,473 | $250K | 6.7% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 419 | Coopertown TN | 4,843 | $118K | 9.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,821 | Alva OK | 4,880 | $41K | 25.9% | 4.9% | 41% | D |
| 3,822 | West Hazleton PA | 5,284 | $34K | 34.9% | 12.4% | 8% | D |
| 3,823 | Trenton TN | 4,137 | $59K | 29.6% | 15.6% | 22% | D |
| 3,824 | Fort Defiance AZ | 3,351 | $56K | 13.3% | 11.2% | 28% | D |
| 3,825 | Blackshear GA | 3,680 | $41K | 23.3% | 5.8% | 17% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,112 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 19% | 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 Trenton, 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 2024, 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 Trenton: questions
What is the median household income in Trenton?
$58,750 (±$16,952) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Trenton?
29.6%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Trenton?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Trenton work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (18%, 23 mi), Humboldt (6%, 10 mi), Milan (5%, 12 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Trenton walkable?
Trenton is more walkable than 35% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Trenton without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Trenton, from the people who make the trip.
More of Trenton
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.