Robert E. Howard House · Photo: 0ccam · CC BY-SA 2.0Earning a living in Cross Plains
Only 7% work in Cross Plains; the top destination outside it is Baird (11%, 23 miles). For 3% of workers, the job is at home (Texas 14%). The average commute takes 33 minutes each way; Texas averages 27, the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Cross Plains, in a few figures
A big share show a job far from home
41% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Cross Plains’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Cross Plains is Baird, 23 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (32) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Cross Plains
55% of Cross Plains residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 32% of the jobs based in Cross Plains pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 93% leave town for their job. 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; with 281 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The distance from Cross Plains to work
About 41% 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.
What Cross Plains’ employers do
341 jobs are based in Cross Plains.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Cross Plains, 2013 → 2023: 363 → 341. 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 Cross Plains’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Cross Plains, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 260 residents head out to work, 21 work right here, and 320 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.21 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
The places Cross Plains commutes to
Where Cross Plains clocks in
11% of workers
8% 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.
About 33 minutes each way, longer than most of Texas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Cross Plains workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 375 commuters (the 3% 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.
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 Cross Plains: questions
What is the median household income in Cross Plains?
$47,292 (±$16,874) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Cross Plains?
16.9%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Cross Plains?
33 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Cross Plains work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Baird (11%, 23 mi), Abilene (8%, 40 mi), Clyde (5%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Cross Plains without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 7% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Cross Plains, from the people who make the trip.
More of Cross Plains
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.