With 0.1 jobs for every working resident, most of Lamar works elsewhere
34 jobs are based in Lamar for 232 working residents. Lamar grades B for jobs and income and B− for walkability. For 32% of workers, the job is at home (Texas 14%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Lamar: the figures worth knowing
Lamar is a place people come home to
There are 34 jobs based in Lamar, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. Day and night ↓
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 ↓
Home offices are common in Lamar
32% of Lamar workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Time on the road ↓
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 232 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Lamar
On income, poverty and job access, Lamar is better than 60% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Lamar’s grade up (4.8%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 23% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (1.9%) is left out: Lamar’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Lamar could be anywhere from B− to B+.
Lamar on a workday afternoon
On a workday 226 residents head out to work, 6 work right here, and 28 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,000 people are in Lamar on a workday afternoon, 16% 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.
The distance from Lamar 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.
About 37 minutes to work from Lamar
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lamar workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 324 commuters (the 32% 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.
17% of working residents work in Rockport
Where Lamar clocks in
16% of workers
6% 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.
The kinds of work in Lamar
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lamar, 2013 → 2023: 88 → 34. 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 Lamar’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most trips from Lamar start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Lamar is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 4.3.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 475 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). 0.0% of Lamar households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Lamar’s commuters take a bus or train.
Lamar is 1,060th of 4,312 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,600 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 10 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 29 | Serenada TX | 1,444 | $155K | 1.5% | 2.6% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,058 | Antigo WI | 1,380 | $96K | 5.5% | 1.1% | 5% | B |
| 1,059 | Watson LA | 1,357 | $97K | 17.2% | 3.0% | 2% | B |
| 1,060 | Lamar TX | 1,202 | $87K | 4.8% | 1.9% | 3% | B |
| 1,061 | Clear Lake WA | 1,271 | $96K | 6.6% | 6.6% | <1% | B |
| 1,062 | Union Springs NY | 1,057 | $81K | 4.4% | 4.1% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 4,312 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Lamar, 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 Lamar: questions
What is the median household income in Lamar?
$86,851 (±$10,175) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lamar?
4.8%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lamar?
37 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 32% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lamar work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Rockport (17%, 7 mi), Corpus Christi (16%, 29 mi), Houston (6%, 149 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Lamar walkable?
Lamar is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.3 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Lamar without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 0% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lamar, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lamar
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.