At 9.4%, unemployment in Alamo is higher than in 93% of U.S. towns
The two grades for Alamo are C− for jobs and income and B− for walkability. Household incomes here are lower than in 78% of U.S. towns. 7% of workers work from home, where Texas as a whole has 14%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Alamo stands out on work
Fewer than half of Alamo workers earn over $40,000 a year
40% of Alamo’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 21% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Most Alamo residents work close to home
64% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. How far ↓
Many jobs in Alamo pay little
27% of the jobs based in Alamo pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. Young workers hold many of them: 31% of all the jobs here go to people 29 or younger. The jobs ↓
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.
Jobs & income in Alamo: the grade in detail
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Alamo is better than 21% of U.S. towns, #513 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Alamo’s grade up (ahead of 81% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Alamo could be anywhere from D to C.
The kinds of work in Alamo
3,787 jobs are based in Alamo.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Alamo, 2013 → 2023: 2,840 → 3,787. 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 Alamo’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Alamo goes to work
About 21% 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.
A workday in Alamo: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 6,275 residents head out to work, 368 work right here, and 3,419 people come in from elsewhere.
About 18,000 people are in Alamo on a workday afternoon, 14% fewer than live here.
0.57 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
20% of working residents work in McAllen
Where Alamo clocks in
20% of workers
16% 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.
Time on the road from Alamo: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Alamo workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,064 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Texas: 83% 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.
In Alamo, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Alamo is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns, #290 of 642 in Texas. Both inputs place Alamo 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 6,501 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). 3.0% of Alamo households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Alamo’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,931 U.S. towns of 14,000 to 28,000, Alamo comes 1,718th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| 2 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ada Township MI | 14,769 | $168K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 16 | Colleyville TX | 25,727 | $218K | 2.5% | 3.0% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Corinth TX | 25,297 | $121K | 3.5% | 1.9% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 49 | Bellaire TX | 17,434 | $244K | 2.4% | 3.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,716 | Gloversville NY | 14,782 | $52K | 17.6% | 4.4% | 16% | C− |
| 1,717 | Donna TX | 16,698 | $40K | 40.7% | 5.4% | 15% | C− |
| 1,718 | Alamo TX | 20,625 | $57K | 25.3% | 9.4% | 6% | C− |
| 1,719 | Chicago Heights IL | 26,508 | $55K | 26.9% | 14.6% | 9% | C− |
| 1,720 | Clarksburg WV | 15,562 | $47K | 23.5% | 4.4% | 22% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,931 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Alamo, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
How Alamo compares with the towns next door
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Alamo workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alamo | – | C− | B− | 24 min | $57,096 |
| North Alamo | under 3% | B− | D | 22 min | $55,408 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Alamo’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 Alamo: questions
What is the median household income in Alamo?
$57,096 (±$10,804) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Alamo?
25.3%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Alamo?
24 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Alamo work?
6% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are McAllen (20%, 8 mi), Pharr (16%, 5 mi), Edinburg (9%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Alamo walkable?
Alamo is more walkable than 50% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Alamo without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Alamo, from the people who make the trip.
More of Alamo
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.