With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Powderly works elsewhere
225 jobs are based in Powderly for 495 working residents. Powderly grades B+ for jobs and income and C for walkability. Measured by household income, Powderly is ahead of 82% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Powderly: the figures worth knowing
41% of Powderly works in Paris
202 working residents, 41%, have their main job in Paris, 10 miles away. That’s 14 times as many as work in Powderly itself. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Powderly are quick
The average trip to work takes 16 minutes, against 27 across Texas. That’s about 84 hours a year less on the road than the typical Texas worker. Time on the road ↓
A big share show a job far from home
34% 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 ↓
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 495 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
The four measures behind Powderly’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Powderly is better than 74% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Powderly’s grade up (1.5%, U.S. 12.5%); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 18% of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (5.6%) is left out: Powderly’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, Powderly could be anywhere from B− to A−.
41% of working residents work in Paris
Where Powderly clocks in
3% 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.
Powderly’s commute takes about 16 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Powderly workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 513 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.
How far Powderly goes to work
About 34% 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.
How a workday changes Powderly
On a workday 482 residents head out to work, 13 work right here, and 212 people come in from elsewhere.
About 870 people are in Powderly 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.
Services make up most of the work in Powderly
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Powderly, 2013 → 2023: 30 → 225. 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 Powderly’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Few in Powderly walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Powderly is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.4% 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 578 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 Powderly households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Powderly’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Powderly is 498th of 3,771 U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 22 | Rollingwood TX | 1,466 | $240K | 4.6% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 27 | Serenada TX | 1,444 | $155K | 1.5% | 2.6% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 496 | Sidney IL | 1,167 | $89K | 4.3% | 4.6% | 1% | B+ |
| 497 | Andalusia IL | 1,175 | $77K | 4.7% | 2.4% | 0% | B+ |
| 498 | Powderly TX | 1,140 | $107K | 1.5% | 5.6% | 3% | B+ |
| 499 | Lake Ketchum WA | 1,235 | $136K | 6.4% | 0.0% | <1% | B+ |
| 500 | Worden IL | 1,066 | $89K | 5.8% | 2.7% | 1% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Powderly, 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 Powderly: questions
What is the median household income in Powderly?
$106,797 (±$28,101) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Powderly?
1.5%, against 13.8% across Texas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Powderly?
16 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Powderly work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Paris (41%, 10 mi), Dallas (3%, 101 mi), Hugo (3%, 14 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Powderly walkable?
Powderly is more walkable than 25% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 4.3 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Powderly 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 Powderly, from the people who make the trip.
More of Powderly
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.