Most of Poetry commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
25% of workers work from home, next to 14% for Texas as a whole. There are 57 jobs in Poetry, and 324 of its residents work somewhere. The two grades for Poetry are A 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
What stands out about work in Poetry
Poetry is a place people come home to
There are 57 jobs based in Poetry, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. Day and night ↓
Poetry’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Poetry is Dallas, 30 miles away as the crow flies. 13% of working residents (42) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
A lot of Poetry works from home
25% of Poetry 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 324 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Poetry: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Poetry is better than 91% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate is its strongest input (2.7%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 70% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
Unemployment (5.8%) is left out: Poetry’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, Poetry could be anywhere from B+ to A+.
A workday in Poetry: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 323 residents head out to work, 1 work right here, and 56 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Poetry on a workday afternoon, 17% 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.
How far it is to work from Poetry
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.
The trip to work from Poetry: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Poetry workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 565 commuters (the 25% 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.
13% of working residents work in Dallas
Where Poetry 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.
In Poetry, 58% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Poetry, 2013 → 2023: 27 → 57. 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 Poetry’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Most of Poetry commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Poetry is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 1.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.0% across Texas, on an EPA index of 3.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 753 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 Poetry households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Poetry’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Poetry ranks: 289th of 5,794 U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 13 | Seis Lagos TX | 1,391 | $249K | 1.2% | 4.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| 28 | Oak Leaf TX | 1,684 | $132K | 2.8% | 5.5% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 287 | Abrams WI | 2,033 | $104K | 4.5% | 0.4% | 2% | A |
| 288 | Haskins OH | 1,263 | $109K | 4.4% | 4.3% | <1% | A |
| 289 | Poetry TX | 1,542 | $95K | 2.7% | 5.8% | <1% | A |
| 290 | Pike Township PA | 1,632 | $106K | 3.6% | 0.5% | 1% | A |
| 291 | Union WI | 2,099 | $99K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Poetry, 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 Poetry: questions
What is the median household income in Poetry?
$95,357 (±$26,445) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Poetry?
2.7%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Poetry?
29 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 25% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Poetry work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Dallas (13%, 30 mi), Rockwall (7%, 12 mi), Terrell (6%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Poetry walkable?
Poetry is more walkable than 16% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 3.8 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Poetry without a car?
0% 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 Poetry, from the people who make the trip.
More of Poetry
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.