Photo: Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0Mount Vernon has higher unemployment (4.9%) than 60% of U.S. towns
About one in seven work in Mount Vernon; the top destination outside it is Mount Pleasant (16%, 14 miles). Jobs and income earn Mount Vernon C+; getting around on foot earns it B. Home is the office for 6% of workers, next to 14% for Texas as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Mount Vernon stands out on work
Where Mount Vernon’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Mount Vernon is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #377 of 642 in Texas. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Mount Vernon’s grade.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Mount Vernon could be anywhere from D to A−.
Miles to work from Mount Vernon
About 33% 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.
Mount Vernon by day and by night
On a workday 809 residents head out to work, 157 work right here, and 1,205 people come in from elsewhere.
About 3,000 people are in Mount Vernon on a workday afternoon, 15% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.41 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.
Out of Mount Vernon to work: where people go
Where Mount Vernon clocks in
16% 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.
The kinds of work in Mount Vernon
1,362 jobs are based in Mount Vernon.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mount Vernon, 2013 → 2023: 1,028 → 1,362. 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 Mount Vernon’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Time on the road from Mount Vernon: about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mount Vernon workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,207 commuters (the 6% 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 Mount Vernon, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mount Vernon is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns, #234 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.0% across Texas.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,279 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). 7.6% of Mount Vernon households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Mount Vernon’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Mount Vernon ranks: 3,050th of 5,083 U.S. towns of 1,800 to 3,500
| # | 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 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 11 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Talty TX | 3,299 | $155K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Southside Place TX | 1,916 | $163K | 5.0% | 5.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,048 | Lincoln Beach OR | 2,434 | $74K | 9.8% | 3.6% | 4% | C+ |
| 3,049 | Jackson MN | 3,305 | $70K | 11.8% | 4.0% | 44% | C+ |
| 3,050 | Mount Vernon TX | 2,610 | $72K | 10.7% | 4.9% | 16% | C+ |
| 3,051 | Fermanagh Township PA | 2,861 | $58K | 12.4% | 2.2% | 11% | C+ |
| 3,052 | Clarendon VT | 2,398 | $60K | 6.0% | 4.8% | 11% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,083 | 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 Mount Vernon, 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 Mount Vernon: questions
What is the median household income in Mount Vernon?
$72,064 (±$31,503) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mount Vernon?
10.7%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Mount Vernon?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mount Vernon work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mount Pleasant (16%, 14 mi), Sulphur Springs (8%, 23 mi), Dallas (3%, 93 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mount Vernon walkable?
Mount Vernon is more walkable than 56% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mount Vernon without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mount Vernon, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mount Vernon
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.