Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Palmer has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.4 for each
Measured by household income, Palmer is ahead of 80% of U.S. towns. There are 488 jobs in Palmer for 1,114 working residents. The two grades for Palmer are B+ for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Palmer and work: the main findings
Palmer’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Palmer is Dallas, 26 miles away as the crow flies. 18% of working residents (206) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Palmer workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 33 minutes each way, against 27 across Texas. Over a year that’s about 253 hours of commuting, 46 more than the state’s typical worker. 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.
What’s behind Palmer’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Palmer is better than 75% of U.S. towns, #171 of 642 in Texas. Job access by car holds Palmer’s grade up (ahead of 86% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (7.2%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Palmer could be anywhere from B− to A+.
How many miles Palmer commutes
About 17% 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.
Commuting from Palmer: about 33 minutes a trip
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Palmer workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,155 commuters (the 11% 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.
A workday in Palmer: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 1,069 residents head out to work, 45 work right here, and 443 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,000 people are in Palmer on a workday afternoon, 24% 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.
18% of working residents work in Dallas
Where Palmer clocks in
7% 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.
What Palmer’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Palmer, 2013 → 2023: 493 → 488. 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 Palmer’s own residents hold wherever they work.
For most of Palmer, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Palmer is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns, #469 of 642 in Texas. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.2% 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 1,299 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). 6.1% of Palmer households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Palmer’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 1,900 to 3,600, Palmer ranks 997th of 4,797 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 995 | Cold Spring NY | 1,998 | $117K | 4.5% | 6.0% | 12% | B+ |
| 996 | Trafford PA | 3,211 | $66K | 9.2% | 1.0% | 3% | B+ |
| 997 | Palmer TX | 2,644 | $104K | 4.5% | 7.2% | 4% | B+ |
| 998 | Ashby MA | 3,274 | $116K | 2.6% | 4.5% | 7% | B+ |
| 999 | Duluth Township MN | 2,121 | $116K | 8.1% | 2.2% | 5% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,797 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Palmer, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
Palmer and its neighbors
The biggest share goes to Ennis (7%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Palmer’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 Palmer: questions
What is the median household income in Palmer?
$104,258 (±$21,261) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Palmer?
4.5%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Palmer?
33 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Palmer work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dallas (18%, 26 mi), Ennis (7%, 7 mi), Waxahachie (6%, 10 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Palmer walkable?
Palmer is more walkable than 29% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Palmer without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Palmer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Palmer
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.