Photo: Leaflet · CC BY-SA 3.0Hale Center has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
179 jobs are based in Hale Center, and 700 of its residents work somewhere. Jobs and income earn Hale Center C−; getting around on foot earns it C. Home is the office for 4% of workers, against 14% across Texas.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Hale Center apart on work
Hale Center’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Hale Center is Lubbock, 35 miles away as the crow flies. 22% of working residents (154) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A big share show a job far from home
40% 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 ↓
Hale Center is a place people come home to
There are 179 jobs based in Hale Center, about three for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Hale Center has about 1,500 people in it, 26% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
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 700 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Hale Center’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Hale Center is better than 18% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Hale Center’s grade up (ahead of 39% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (18.0%, U.S. 12.5%).
Unemployment (8.9%) is left out: Hale Center’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Hale Center could be anywhere from D to B−.
Short hops and long hauls from Hale Center
About 40% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Hale Center
On a workday 666 residents head out to work, 34 work right here, and 145 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Hale Center on a workday afternoon, 26% 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.
22% of working residents work in Lubbock
Where Hale Center clocks in
18% 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.
Hale Center works in goods: 42% of its jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Hale Center, 2013 → 2023: 162 → 179. 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 Hale Center’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How long Hale Center spends getting to work: about 18 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Hale Center workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 732 commuters (the 4% 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.
Most of Hale Center commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Hale Center is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Hale Center 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 761 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). 10.8% of Hale Center households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Hale Center’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Hale Center ranks: 4,173rd of 5,509 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,700
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 22 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| 23 | Serenada TX | 1,444 | $155K | 1.5% | 2.6% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,171 | Sugar Grove Township PA | 1,542 | $67K | 17.3% | 6.9% | 2% | C− |
| 4,172 | Hawthorne FL | 1,505 | $55K | 15.4% | 1.0% | 3% | C− |
| 4,173 | Hale Center TX | 1,979 | $57K | 18.0% | 8.9% | 5% | C− |
| 4,174 | Clarendon TX | 1,860 | $57K | 9.0% | 1.0% | 24% | C− |
| 4,175 | Bradley Township IL | 1,883 | $71K | 16.7% | 2.3% | 11% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,509 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Hale Center, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
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 Hale Center: questions
What is the median household income in Hale Center?
$57,083 (±$18,128) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Hale Center?
18.0%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Hale Center?
18 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Hale Center work?
5% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lubbock (22%, 35 mi), Plainview (18%, 11 mi), Amarillo (7%, 78 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Hale Center walkable?
Hale Center is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Hale Center without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Hale Center, from the people who make the trip.
More of Hale Center
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.